


The Last of the Real Ones

by TwentySixNine (1529Jake)



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Frerard, M/M, Paramore (Band), Petekey Zombie AU, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, petekey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-26 09:03:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 59,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13854504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1529Jake/pseuds/TwentySixNine
Summary: A year into the zombie apocalypse and things aren't looking too well for Mikey Way.  Separated from his brother and friend after the betrayal of someone they had placed their trust in he finds himself alone and angry.  While trying to refill his water supply he runs into a group of scouts from the ever growing safe haven for human survivors known as The Last of the Real Ones.  One of the scouts takes a special interest in Mikey and does all that he can to try to convince Mikey not to run off by himself.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, so I love zombies, and I also love Petekey. Lately I've been obsessed with the show Z Nation and it has me really inspired to write, and this is what has come out of it. A Petekey, zombie mash up that I'm having a lot of fun writing.
> 
> ~TwentySixNine

His entire body shook as he leaned over the river.  Cupping his hands he dipped them in and brought what little water he had captured in them to his lips.  Water had never tasted so good before, but he still had to be careful; nobody knew how the infection started to spread in the first place.  So many people had been effected so earlier on that one of the theories was that it had gotten into the water supply and some people were just lucky enough to be immune to the original infection.  Someone debunked that rumor rather early on, but the thought still made Mikey a little sick to his stomach.

Checking over his shoulder Mikey let himself relax, collapsing to the ground.  The fighting, the running, the killing, all of it had his limbs begging him to just stay still for a minute or two.  To relax for the first time in a year, but he couldn’t do that, not really.  Even as let his eyes close for a second his left hand rested on the hilt of the gun he carried, while his right gripped the metal baseball bat with spikes like it would never hold anything else ever again.  

All he wanted right now was a nap, a real nap, even if it only lasted for five minutes.  But he couldn’t risk it, not sense he had lost Gerard, Bob and Ray a few days ago.  And really he was being hopeful when he thought of Gerard and Ray still being alive.  That horde was huge, and that explosion Bob had set them up for was even bigger.  The fire that resulted swallowed everything, and Mikey had no other option but to run in the opposite direction of the rendezvous point.  He didn’t stop until all he could see was a little bit of smoke in the distance.  But just because there was a fire nearby, that didn’t mean the zombies would steer clear.  In the three days he had been alone he had seen too many to kill, and had been forced into hiding rather than fighting them all.  Just a few hours earlier they had gotten bored of trying to get ahold of him and left in search of another meal.  But he had no doubt in his mind that they would be back soon enough.

And with that thought firmly in his mind Mikey sat back up.  When he reached for the backpack he had been carrying he heard the snapping of a branch from the other side of the river.  He couldn’t be sure of its origins: human, zombie, or animal and lately it was hard to tell the difference between the three even when looking them eye.  Either way it wasn’t a good sign, but he needed to fill that water jug in his backpack if he wanted to survive.  For a moment he didn’t move, waiting to see if whatever had made that noise would make another mistake.  It did.

Close to the edge of the riverbank this time, whatever it was, had kicked something that splashed into the water.

“Did you hear that?” A voice asked.

“Water,” another replied.

Even though Mikey wanted to relax, he didn’t.  Just because these were humans he was dealing with didn’t mean he was safe.  With the outbreak of zombies, came the loss of humanity.  But at least knowing it was humans Mikey knew he could wait them out.  Stealthy like a cat in the night Mikey gathered his things and hid behind a nearby tree.  The zombie apocalypse diet allowed his entire body to fit behind the rather slim tree trunk without exposing any part of his body to anyone across the riverbank. 

“Finally,” one of them gasped as they burst out of the thickett and took in the river.  “I thought we were going to die of dehydration.”

“I’m glad we didn’t” the other one said, “how fucking annoying would it be to die of dehydration in the zombie apocalypse?”

“You would rather get bitten?” A third voice asked disgusted.

“No, I’d rather die saving someone then running out of water,” the first one said.

“Does it really matter?”  A fourth voice said sounding even more exhausted than Mikey felt.  “Either way you die, at this point it doesn’t matter if it’s some big gesture or some stupid mistake.  You die, you become one of them, it’s as simple as that.”

“Jesus Christ Joe,” the first voice said, “the apocalypse really has changed you.”

“For fucks sake Pete of course it has,” Joe said angered, “not all of us have some disconnect from reality that allows us to ignore what’s inevitable.  Don’t you get it, we’re doomed.”

Jesus, Mikey thought, this guy is an absolute pessimist.  Ironically before the apocalypse Mikey wasn’t the hopeful type at all, it was always his brother’s job to be hopeful, but then along came the virus and the roles reversed.  It wasn’t something he could explain, but then again there wasn’t much about the way he was living that he could explain.

“Alright Joe calm down,” one of the unnamed ones said, “we’re all a little on edge, we can’t be dividing ourselves right now.  Let’s set up camp for the night, Pete and Joe you two can take the perimeter, Andy and I will set up what’s left.”

“Fine,” Joe huffed.

Mikey stiffened when he heard the sound of boots splashing through water.  One of them was crossing the river, and if Mikey decided to run he would leave his back exposed.

“Disconnect from reality,” the guy muttered under his breath when he stepped onto Mikey’s side of the river.  “What reality? Oh that’s right the actual zombie fucking apocalypse reality we live in.  That fucking reality.”  

Mikey held his breath as he silently checked his clip, there was only one bullet left and he wasn’t about to waste it on some insane guy talking to himself.  He shoved the gun into the waistband of his pants and gripped his bat with both hands.  As the voice kept muttering over and over, his fingers danced on the neck of the bat, he was getting ready strike.

“Reality is a joke,” the voice was on the other side of the tree, “it always has been.”  With a deep breath Mikey swung just as the guy stepped around the tree.  Seeing the glint off the bat he ducked and the momentum Mikey used to swing it landed the spikes in the bark.  “Hello to you too.”

“I’m good at hand to hand,” Mikey said balling his hands into fists taking a fighting stance.

“I’m not going to call you a liar,” the guy answered, “but I think my bullets will do more damage then your fists.”  He lifted the sniper riffle and aligned the barrel with Mikey’s forehead.

“For all I know that things for show,” Mikey said even as he stepped back, “ammo is hard to come by these days.”

Without saying a word the man with the gun lifted a handgun out of his waistband and fired it into the air. 

“Well if the rifle isn’t loaded, this sure as hell is.” Another set of boots splashed through the water and before Mikey knew it another guy was standing there aiming a gun at his temple.  “So let’s try that again; hello.”

“Hi,” Mikey said putting his hands up in surrender.  He watched as the two men in front of him visibly relaxed a little.  Nobody spoke, but just as the two with the guns shared a glance Mikey ripped the bat out of the tree, ducked under the rifle and swung again.  He missed, but the momentum gave him space to retreat.  

“You’re a sneaky little shit,” the one with the sniper rifle chuckled.

“Pete,” the other one said, “stop messing with him.  Look kid we aren’t going to hurt you, my friend here is just an idiot.”

“I’m not a kid,” Mikey said, but then realized that probably wasn’t the best response he could’ve come up with.  Shaking his head a little he asked, “And why should I believe you?”

“Yeah Patrick, why should he believe us?” Pete asked, “this is the zombie apocalypse afterall.  Oh wait could it be that we haven’t shot him yet, even though he’s swung that monstrosity at me twice now?  Or maybe it’s because we have food we’d be willing to share with his lanky ass?  Or I don’t know the fact that we’re not zombies?”

“He’s scared-”

“I’m not,” Mikey interjected, “I’m pissed.”

“Aren’t we all?”  Pete said lowering his gun, Patrick following suit.  Slowly Pete stuck his hand out for Mikey to shake.  “I’m Pete.”

“Mikey,” skeptically Mikey shook Pete’s hand.

“Alright Mikey,” Pete said, “how about we put our hostility on some very high shelf that even you can’t reach and relax.  My friends and I have enough supplies to share, and it looks like you could use some rest.”

“I’m fine,” Mikey said, “I have people I need to get back to.”

“I hope they’re not that way,” Patrick said pointing behind Mikey just as the familiar sound of a zombie howl sounded.

“Actually,” Mikey sighed, “they just so happen to be.”  Without thinking Mikey drew his handgun from his waistband and took aim.  Just before he pulled the trigger he remembered that this was the last bullet he had, besides the one he wore around his neck, and that was for one particular emergency.  He lowered the gun and tucked it back into his waistband.

A moment later Pete fired the sniper rifle hitting the damn thing right between the eyes.  Mikey was impressed by Pete’s shot, but it still didn’t compare to his own.  None of them said anything, for a minute.

“I’ve got to go,” Mikey said finally and started to walk in the direction where the zombie came from.

“Where there’s one there’s about twenty more,” Patrick called after him.

“We can’t let him go off by himself,” Pete said to Patrick, “it’s suicide.”

“What do you suggest I do?”  Patrick asked confused.

“I don’t know, but can you in good conscious let him go?” 

“Why is it my responsibility to feel guilty?”

“Fine,” Pete muttered.  “Mikey, you can’t leave, you’ll be dead before you reach the next town.”  Pete jogged to catch up with Mikey who wasn’t moving very fast.  He hadn’t even made it to the zombie yet.

“I can do what I want,” Mikey retorted continuing to walk on.  “It’s the apocalypse nobody can tell me what to do...well one person can, but he’s not here right now.”

The smell of rot and blood drifted towards the pair with the breeze.  They both cringed, but were hardly phased.  Zombie may have been the worst smell at one point, but now it was just a cruel reminder of what their lives had become.

“Listen I’m just trying to help a fellow human being out,” Pete said.  All of the sudden Mikey stopped, only a few feet away from the zombie.  “I know it’s not something you don’t hear often, but it’s true.  My friends and I are part of a large group, right now we’re on a scouting trip for more survivors and supplies.”

“Shut up,” Mikey muttered taking a few steps closer to the zombie who was already being swarmed by flies.

“I’m not lying,” Pete said, “we’re dedicated to finding away out of this.”

“Stop talking,” Mikey said getting on his knees and leaning closer.  He could hardly see past the disgusting insects and started to swat at them.  But he didn’t have to see past the swarm to tell who this was.  “No, no, no, no.  Fuck.  This can’t be real, this can’t...fuck.”

“Hey, are you alright?”  Pete asked placing his hand on Mikey’s shoulder.  Another howl blaring across the clearing.  “Don’t worry I got it.”

“No,” Mikey shot to his feet.  “Let me see your scope.”  Cautiously Pete handed Mikey his gun and watched as Mikey peered through the scope the entire gun shaking.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to handle a gun,” Pete said wearily just as Mikey fired.  The shot pierced the approaching zombie through the heart, and all it did was anger it enough to get it to run at them.  Mikey dropped the rifle to the ground and readied his bat.

“What are you doing?”  Pete shouted as Mikey started to walk towards the zombie.  It wasn’t long before he planted his feet, pulled the bat back and just stood there waiting for the zombie to get close.  As soon as it was in distance Mikey swung for head the spikes sticking into the skull.  His follow through ripped the head right off of the zombie’s neck as he let out an angered cry.

“You bastard!” Mikey yelled as he kicked the headless body.  “We trusted you.  We  _ trusted _ you.”  Pete watched as Mikey whacked the bat against the ground the head still attached.  Over and over he did this until it was completely shattered.  “You got what you deserved you piece of shit, Bob Bryar, I hope you burn in hell.”

“He’s an angry one,” Patrick said now beside Pete.  “We should let him be, he’s probably dangerous.”  Just then Mikey’s body couldn’t take it anymore.  His knees clattered together and his body hit the ground before he could even register what was happening.

“We’re all angry and we’re all dangerous.  But that doesn’t mean we deserve to be left alone.”  Pete patted Patrick on the shoulder and went to where Mikey had collapsed.  He picked Mikey up and carried him back the makeshift camp Andy had put up as Patrick finished the perimeter sweep for him.


	2. Chapter 2

When Mikey woke up his head felt like dead weight, and the stars were shining above him.  The sound of a crackling fire, and hushed voices pulled his attention to the right.  Two people were sitting by a fire poking at it with long sticks, their conversation muffled by the flames.

“Welcome back to the land of consciousness,” Pete said from Mikey’s left side.  He was sitting with his back against a tree watching over Mikey as he slept.  In Pete’s lap was Mikey’s bat, it was shining in the moonlight like it was brand new.  “I filled your water and cleaned this off for you.”

“Thanks,” Mikey muttered.  “Were there anymore zombies after those two?” 

“Nope,” Pete answered placing Mikey’s bat on the ground.  “I think you scared any nearby zombies off after the display of rage.  Hey, speaking of, you mind sharing what the hell that was all about?”

“I do actually,” Mikey sat up reaching for his bag.  When he pulled it closer he was surprised by the weight of it.  

“Just some ammo, a little bit of food, and medical supplies you might need,” Pete answered the question before it was even asked.

“I’m not a charity case, you can take it all back.  I’ll find my brother alone.”  Mikey said tipping the bag over to empty the contents.  Nothing came out.

“That would’ve been cooler if you unzipped the bag,” Pete taunted taking it away from Mikey.  “So it’s your brother who you’re looking for?”

“Yes,” the curtness of Mikey’s anger didn’t discourage Pete.

“When did you last see him?”

“About three days,” Mikey yawned, “we were traveling with a friend, Ray.  You’d know him as the zombie you shot a few hours ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Pete whispered, “you should’ve been the one to-”

“Yeah, I should’ve,” Mikey sighed, “but it’s over now and he’s better off.  Now I need to give him a proper farewell.”  Getting to his feet Mikey swayed a little but tried to hide it from Pete.  It didn’t work, but Pete didn’t say anything seeing that Mikey was mid crisis.

“He’ll still be there tomorrow, why don’t you wait?”  Pete asked trying to calm Mikey a little.

“Because he deserved better than some stupid apocalypse, and I won’t abandon him again.”  Mikey picked up his bat, and slung his backpack onto his shoulder.  “Thanks for the help, but I’m going now.”  Pete lurched forward and grabbed Mikey by the arm.  His grip was deadly, and caught Mikey off guard.

“I can’t let you leave, it’s not safe.”  Pete tried to stop Mikey, his voice loud enough to draw the attention of the two by the fire.  They both got off the logs they were sitting on and started to approach Mikey and Pete.

“Let go of me,” Mikey hissed as he yanked his arm using the entire weight of his body as help he managed to get free.  As soon as he escaped he spun on his heel and took off.  It didn’t matter that Pete was calling out after him, or that he was being too loud going through the river, or even that the combination of loud noises would no doubt attract any nearby zombies who were on the prowl for a midnight snack.  All that mattered was honoring Ray, one of the few allies he had left, and one of his brother’s best friends since childhood.  Mikey wished he could’ve saved Ray, or at least gave him a bullet to the head before he had turned into the thing that had sent life as everyone knew it into a spiral of chaos and nightmares.

“Stop,” Pete called out his boots splashing through the water as quickly as he could.

“Pete shut up, you don’t know what’s out there,” Patrick called after him.  When he saw that Pete wasn’t going to give up he turned to look at Andy.  “I’ll be back, tell Joe that he can take a break from lookout when we get back, Pete’s dumbass can take over for him.”

“Okay,” Andy said.  They both went their separate ways.

“Come on kid, stop,” Pete called out again.

“Leave me alone,” Mikey shouted over his shoulder finally he could see Ray laying on the ground.  It wouldn’t be long  before he was putting Ray to rest and giving him the proper farewell he deserved.  Just because it was the zombie apocalypse didn’t mean that Ray deserved anything less than a proper burial, and Mikey was hell bent on giving it to him.  

The flies that surrounded Ray earlier were now scattered on the ground around his body, as much as they loved to dine on zombies for some reason the infected flesh they consumed always ended up killing them.

“I’m sorry Ray,” Mikey whispered kneeling beside his deceased friend.  “I shouldn’t have left you and Gerard that way.  But you should know that I killed that bastard for setting us up, he got what he deserved.  I’ll find the people he was working with and I will take them out in your and Gerard’s honor, and when that’s all said and done, I will fire my last bullet.  I put you to peace friend.”  Mikey started to dig at the ground with the spikes of his bat.

“That’s not going to work,” Pete said over Mikey’s shoulder.

“I’ve done it before,” Mikey answered, “it just takes a little patience and a little bit of time.”  Pete watched as Mikey struggled to dig into the solid ground, and making little progress with the spikes that jutted dangerously out of his baseball bat.  

“Pete,” Patrick said approaching them both from behind, “I need to talk to you.”

“Fine,” Pete huffed to Patrick, “Mikey just don’t go anywhere.”  Mikey waved Pete off, it’s not like he planned on it anyway, he was going to bury Ray even if zombies decided to come for him.

Grabbing Pete by the arm Patrick pulled him a few feet away from Mikey so they could be out of earshot.  When he released Pete from his grasp there were faint finger marks left on Pete’s bicep from where Patrick had been squeezing, neither of them could see them under the moonlight, but they both figured they were there just from how tight Patrick had been holding on.

“What are you doing?”  Patrick asked a little harshly.

“I’m trying to help a fellow human being out,” Pete answered back meeting Patrick’s harshness.  “Our job is to help our kind, and offer them asylum back at the base.”

“Right,” Patrick said letting his voice even out knowing that challenging Pete wouldn’t work.  With Pete the best tactic was to be understanding, and calm, the same went for Andy.  Joe was the one who needed to be challenged and handled with some kind authority.  “We offer them asylum, we don’t force them to come along.  We help people who are willing to come with us, and we don’t force people to join us.  It’s not a prison camp, it’s a shelter.  If Mikey doesn’t want to join us, then the best we can do is give him some supplies and leave him be.”

“He’s all alone Patrick, and he’s clearly hurting,” Pete couldn’t help to look over at Mikey who had jammed the bat into the ground and was twisting in frustration.  September wasn’t the best time to try to dig a grave, especially when all you had to dig it with was a baseball bat that was modified with spikes for killing zombies.

“Yeah, well that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the freedom to choose what he wants to do with himself.”  It hurt Patrick to be so callous and distanced from the situation, but he was just being rational.  Before the apocalypse people hated being told what to do, but that hatred seemed to grow for a lot of people ever since the world had been overrun by the living dead.  For a lot of people the apocalypse meant losing a lot of things they would never get back so they held on tightly to some of the few things they would always have; one of those things being free will.  As Patrick watched Mikey desperately dig the grave for whoever it was he had lost to the infection, he realized that Mikey was clinging to that free will with all of his might.  It may as well be the only thing he knew for sure he had left.

“You sound brainwashed Patrick,” Pete spat at his friend.

“No,” Patrick answered trying his best to remember that Pete wouldn’t respond to an angry outburst, “I’m just giving him the same choice we were given when they found us.  Now I’m going back to camp, I’ll find something to help him speed up the process of digging that grave, and you can stay with him to make sure nothing happens to him.  After that if he wants to leave, he can leave.”

Patrick didn’t give Pete a chance to reply before he started to jog back to their temporary campsite.  With a sigh Pete went back over to Mikey, instead of letting the sniper rifle hang by its strap he grabbed it in case anything decided it was hungry for human flesh.

“Patrick is going to find something that will make it easier for you to dig,” Pete told Mikey who had seemed have given up on trying as much as he was before.  An almost silent throat clear came from Mikey before he started to try digging again.  Pete’s heart went out for Mikey as he lifted his rifle to use the scope to check their surroundings, when everything looked clear Pete kneeled down next to Mikey.  “Hey, are you alright?”

“Am I alright?” Mikey asked, turning to look at Pete like he was absolutely insane.  “No I’m not alright.  We’re in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, my brother is missing, and his best friend is dead.  I watched as my brother put my parents down right in front of me just so I wouldn’t have to carry the guilt of killing the zombie version of the people who had given us life.  I have no idea if any of my other family members are alive.  And I kind of wish I was dead so I didn’t have to deal with this bullshit life anymore.  And now to top it all off I have some random guy with a serious hero complex who won’t leave me alone.  I’m so far from being alright that it physically hurts.”

“You could have it worse,” Pete said.

“Oh really?”  Mikey said shrugging his shoulders.

“Yeah, you could have a math test tomorrow.”

For a moment Mikey didn’t react, but when he did Pete almost fell back in slight surprise.  Laughter, real laughter, clumsily tumbled out of Mikey’s throat surrounding them both.  It didn’t last for a meager second or two, but instead it went on for almost a full minute.  It grew louder and slightly hysterical the longer it lasted.  Worried the sound would attract zombies Pete stood up again and did a quick sweep of the clearing through the scope of his gun.  It must have been a lucky moment because nothing seemed to be approaching.

“I always hated math,” Mikey said finally settling himself down.

“I was never any good at it,” Pete replied taking another quick glance through his scope.  Surprisingly there still wasn’t anything heading their way.  “I’m sorry about your family.”

“Me too,” Mikey sighed.  “I’m so pissed that this happened, and it’s our own damn fault.”

“So are you saying you believe the rumors?”  Pete asked trying to keep Mikey distracted as they waited for Patrick.

“If you look at the facts they seem less like rumors and more like our reality.”  Mikey started to dig at the ground with bat again loosening some of the dirt.  “The last I heard was that North Korea was still zombie free while every other country is crawling with them, as if North Korea knew what was coming and managed to take all the necessary precautions to ensure their safety.  We were the first hit, and everyone knows how our presidency at the time of the outbreak was horribly affecting our already awful relationship with the North Korean powers.  It seems like the idea of biohazard warfare from North Korea is the only rational explanation, and I doubt it would have happened if our president didn’t antagonize them so much.  It was like he was playing that stupid I’m not touching you game until they finally snapped and hit us as hard as they could.  If we hadn’t elected that buffoon then we wouldn’t be here.”

“I don’t know,” Pete said, “I still think the Pluto theory is right.”

“The Pluto theory?” Mikey asked looking up at Pete curiously.

“You haven’t heard of it?” Pete asked sounding shocked.  Mikey shook his head and watched as Pete checked the area through his scope, this time a smirk on his face.  “Oh it’s great, remind me to tell you about it later.”  With that he fired the gun, and quickly cocked it again before aiming slightly to the right of where he had already been aiming and fired again.  Mikey shot to his feet his heart racing.

What if one of those monster was Gerard, Mikey thought to himself making his stomach twist into a giant uncomfortable knot.  Pete fired again.  He remained poised to shoot again if he had to, but after a few deep breaths it seemed like they were clear.

“Did any of them have bright red hair?”  Mikey asked desperately.

“I don’t think so-”

“You don’t think so or no?”  Mikey asked roughly.

“It’s hard to tell for sure, it’s so dark and they’re kind of far away...” Pete trailed off.

“I need to know,” Mikey said clutching the bullet Pete had noticed he wore around his neck earlier.  Just as Mikey was about to take off again Pete grabbed him, this time holding on tight enough that Mikey couldn’t get free.  “I need to know.”  Mikey repeated his eyes going wide.

“No, you need to live,” Pete retorted.  “If your brother is still out there you won’t do him any good if you die from making some idiotic decision.”

“What if he’s one of those zombies you just put down?”  Mikey asked pulling as hard as he could, but Pete still wouldn’t release him from his iron-grip.  “You can’t say you know for certain that he wasn’t one of them.”

“It’s dangerous, if you stay with us tonight, we’ll all go out that way with you tomorrow to check.  Our base is that way anyway.”  Pete said.

“That’s not good enough,” Mikey answered stubbornly just as Patrick returned holding a broken shovel.

“I heard shots,” Patrick said taking in the way Pete was gripping Mikey’s arm.  “What’s going on?”

“This idiot,” Mikey and Pete said in unison in regards to the other.

“He won’t listen to reason,” Pete said when Mikey fell silent.

“He may have shot my brother,” Mikey said suddenly angry.  “He put my friend down, and who knows maybe he just did the same to my brother.  I need to know if one of those monsters was my brother, but he can’t seem to keep his hands off of me.”  Finally stating his case Mikey used his free hand to grab his handgun from the waistband of his pants and swung the hilt at Pete’s head.  It connected solidly, and Pete’s had no other choice but to let go off Mikey.  The moonlight reflected in the blood that was coming out of the fresh wound on Pete’s forehead as Mikey pointed the gun at Pete.

“Okay, we can be calm about this,” Patrick said holding his arms up.  “My friend here is just trying to lookout for you-”

“That’s not his job,” Mikey said flicking the safety off, “my brother is supposed to be looking out for me, and I’m supposed to be looking out for him.  I will shoot you if you try to stop me.”  Mikey took two steps backwards, and Pete took two steps forward pressing his hand against his wound.

“Pluto was apparently home to a group of advanced human life forms,” Pete said trying to distract Mikey, while Patrick sighed dropping his hands in frustration.

“Jesus Christ not this again, please shoot him.”  But Mikey didn’t, instead he cocked his head a little to the right.

“Go on.”

“They were sent to Pluto by NASA to ensure that they wouldn’t be able to harm any of us who were below their intelligence levels.”  Pete took another step closer, “NASA left them there with the bare minimum so that they would survive enough to live a normal lifespan, but because of their superior intelligence they took what they had been given to survive and created an entire civilization up there, they even created a satellite that could reach Earth so they could keep up with what was going on down here.  They were the reason NASA kept going back and forth on giving Pluto planet status.  Some people at NASA claimed that calling Pluto a planet would draw too much attention to it, and would create problems further down the line.  You know they couldn’t have some future astronauts getting nosy and flying all the way out there to discover what they had done to those people.  But other employees at NASA thought the least they could do for those people they had banished was to recognize their new homeland as a planet.  While all of this was going on those people on Pluto had come up with an infection that they gave to one of their own, put that person into a tiny escape pod they had built and sent him down here.  He crash landed in the United States just like they had hoped and he got to work getting revenge for his people on Pluto.  And because of their satellite they were able to warn North Korea so they could frame the North Korean government for what they had done.”

“That last bit about North Korea is new and so is the satellite,” Patrick said in an accusing tone.

“That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” Mikey said dumbfounded by what he had just heard.

“It’s the Pluto Theory.”  Pete answered defensively.

“So you came up with it?”  Mikey questioned which made Patrick chuckle under his breath.

“Yes he did,” Patrick said, “he was obsessed with Pluto, and was also too damn lazy to do actual research on it before the apocalypse so when we were in high school he came up with the Pluto People Theory to explain NASA’s hot and cold with Pluto.”

“You two knew each other before?” Mikey asked surprised.

“Yeah, we were best friends in school.” Pete answered patting Patrick on the shoulder.

“Why would you put up with him through the apocalypse, wasn’t school bad enough?” Mikey said as his arms started to get tired from holding the gun up.

“You cling to the people you care about when the world goes to hell,” Patrick answered, “but you already know that.  Why don’t we bury your friend here, and then tomorrow morning we’ll go check those other zombies out there to see if any of them are your brother.  My team and I are heading back to our base and it just so happens to be in that direction anyway.”

“Fine,” Mikey said turning his safety back on and putting his gun back, “but keep the psychopath away from me.”

“I literally already gave you that option, and I’m not a psychopath-” Pete started to say, but Patrick cut him off.

“Deal.  Pete’s next on lookout anyway.”  Patrick handed Mikey the broken shovel that he had brought back with him, and Mikey began to dig Ray’s grave.  There wasn’t enough time, or enough shovel, to dig the proper six feet deep hole, but that really didn’t matter anymore.  Once the hole was deep enough for Ray’s body to be hidden by the dirt Mikey would cover him with he pulled the bullet from around Ray’s neck and put it into his gun.  Pete and Patrick watched curiously as Mikey pulled the bullet that was in the clip out and replaced it with the one that was around Ray’s neck.  Putting the clip back in, Mikey turned the safety off and cocked the gun.  He knew now that the bullet was in the chamber just waiting for him to let it loose.

“Ray I give you your final bullet,” and just like that Mikey pulled the trigger.  The bullet pierced through Ray’s heart, but there was no blood, or wail of agony because he was already dead.  He had been before Pete put that bullet between his eyes.  Shakily Mikey rolled him over until he fell into his shallow grave.  Silently Pete and Patrick helped Mikey cover Ray’s body with the dirt.  “I hope you find peace, and all that you’ve lost,” Mikey said as he pushed the last of the dirt back into place.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Patrick said patting Mikey on the back.  He gently guided Mikey back to the campsite, Pete following behind wondering what he had just witnessed.  He knew that the apocalypse had brought on some strange and unique burial rituals, but he had never seen that one before.  When they got to the campsite Patrick sent Mikey to the sleeping bag that Pete usually used, and told Pete it was time for him to relieve Joe from lookout.  While Pete was watching everyone he couldn’t help but think about Mikey.

There was something about him that made Pete want to save him more than he had wanted to save anyone else he had encountered.  Maybe it was the way his eyes seemed hollowed out, but expressive at the same time.  Or the fact that he looked like a defenseless house cat who had wandered too far away from home, but fought like a feral cat who had nothing left to lose.  Either way there was no way he could let Mikey go off out into what was left of the world to find someone who could be dead, or worse.  He just couldn’t.


	3. Chapter 3

Mikey didn’t sleep the rest of the night, instead he stared off at the trees and listened as the four people he was with took turns taking lookout and trying to get some sleep.  Just as the sun was about to rise Patrick and Pete swapped.  Pete laid down in a sleeping bag that was next to Mikey, but it didn’t seem like he was going to sleep anytime soon.  For awhile Mikey didn’t say anything, instead he tried his best to seem like he was sleeping, he let his breathing even out and his eyes remain shut.

“I can tell you’re awake,” Pete mumbled, “nobody sleeps like that anymore, we’re all too on edge to sleep peacefully.”

Mikey scoffed at Pete before turning over to look at him.  But Pete didn’t even have his eyes open, they were screwed shut like he had to force them to stay closed, Mikey had been there before.  Actually he had been there almost every night for over a year, but those nights that he hadn’t was because he didn’t even try.  Sleep felt too mundane for the life he was living, but he knew that even the most mundane things would keep him alive longer.

“I can’t believe you pistol whipped me,” Pete said as his hand went to the now bandaged injury.  “I just wanted to help.”

“And I told you I don’t need help,” Mikey shot back.

“We all need help,” Pete retorted opening his eyes.  He didn’t seem surprised to see Mikey staring at him with those haunting eyes set wide.  Up close Pete could see those unforgiving irses, the color of Whiskey, and the relentless dark circles underneath them.  He wondered if his own eyes had them underneath, ever since Pete had to make the hardest decision of his life he hadn’t been able to look at himself, not even in passing.  He couldn’t remember what his face looked like.

“Not me,” Mikey told Pete even though he knew he was lying.  “All I need is to find my brother, and get my revenge.”

“You can’t do either dead.”

Mikey couldn’t take listening to Pete telling over and over again that he had to survive, as if he wasn’t aware of that fact already.  As if he hadn’t been doing just that for over a year now.  He was sick of surviving, he wanted to live.

Needing a break from being preached to about survival Mikey got out of his sleeping bag and left Pete alone.  There were two people sitting by the fire, and Mikey would rather deal with two people than the one who just wouldn’t shut up.  He kept light on his feet trying his best to avoid making any noise,  it was usually something he was good at, but he didn’t realize that this group had laid down traps.  Before he knew it he had set one of them off, and was hanging by his ankle from a tree branch, two guns pointing at him and one Pete running his way.

“It’s just that kid,” one of the guns with the said.

“I’m not a kid,” Mikey gritted through his teeth.

“You look like a kid,” he said, and Mikey had an inkling of a suspicion that the one talking to him was Joe.

“And you look like a meth dealer,” Mikey retorted which made Andy and Pete, who had arrived just in time to hear what Mikey said, chuckle.  “Can one of you let me down now?”

“Your Pete’s problem,” Joe answered patting Andy.  “Come on let’s go back to the fire.”  Although Andy felt bad leaving Mikey there and in the hands of Pete he followed Joe back to the fire like he said to.

Pete crouched down to be eye level with Mikey and waved at him by wiggling his fingers, they almost looked like they were dancing.

“Hi there,” Pete teased.  
“Can you let me down before I pass out?”  Mikey asked raising his eyebrows feeling the blood rush to his head.  It made him think of being a kid and wrestling with his father and Gerard.  Somehow his father would always end up grabbing his legs and holding upside while Gerard tried to help Mikey get loose.  That was long before life got complicated.

“Why should I do that, you don’t need help.”  Pete countered with a smirk.

“You’re being ridiculous,” Mikey said.

“Maybe it’s my psychopathic tendencies shining through,” Pete said taking pride in being able to use a handful of Mikey’s own words against him.  “If you apologize, then maybe I’ll think about you letting you down.”

“Yeah right,” Mikey said crossing his arms over his chest.  “I’d rather hang upside down until my eyes burst out of my head from all the blood.”

“That’s a old wives tale,” Pete said pulling a knife out of his boot, “they’ll stay in your skull...but you could die even I leave you hanging.”

“Alright then I guess this is how I die,” Mikey said trying to turn away from Pete.  Pete chuckled and grabbed Mikey by the waist to keep him from turning.

“You’re stubborn kid,” Pete said.

“I. Am. Not. A. Kid.” Mikey repeated each word spit with as much anger as he could possibly muster.  His entire head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and his stomach was starting to twist a little, but he didn’t let it show.  He wouldn’t show Pete any kind of weakness for as long as could manage.

“You keep saying that,” Pete said, “but you don’t act any other way.”

“Oh because you act like such an adult,” Mikey retorted little black spots forming at the edge of his vision one moment, and disappearing the next.  He could tell it wouldn’t be long now before he passed out, and he still didn’t feel like apologizing to Pete for anything he may have said or done to him.  

“Alright if you won’t say sorry, why don’t you explain what that ritual was about,” Pete said just trying to get Mikey to open up to him in hopes he would decide to tag along all the way back to their base camp.  All the way back to safety.

“Why do you care?”  Mikey asked the black spots returning.  He’d be lucky to last another minute hanging like this.

“It’s the apocalypse’s version of different cultures, and I find them interesting.”

“Some cultures are private,” Mikey said somberly.  With a sigh Pete decided to let the topic go, he’d get it out of Mikey eventually.

“Did you ever see Spiderman?”  Pete asked changing the subject.

“Which one?”

“Tobey Maquire’s version.”

“Yeah, I grew up on them,” Mikey said finding it a little hard keep his eyes focused on Pete.  “What about it?”

“Well our current situation is giving me childhood flashbacks,” Pete said wiggling his eyebrows.

“Me too, but I don’t see what this has to do with Spiderman,” Mikey said his breath escaping him a little.

“Well I’m not saying I’m going to kiss you, but this reminds me of the scene where Spiderman saves Mary Jane and then he kisses her.” 

“You didn’t save me either,” Mikey said his eyes fluttering a little.  Pete swore under his breath and called out to Andy for help getting Mikey down.  He gave Andy the knife and got low enough to grab Mikey so he didn’t fall and get hurt.

“Why couldn’t you just let him down?”  Andy asked once Mikey was laying on the ground his head awkwardly resting in Pete’s lap.

“I was trying to get him to trust me,” Pete said as if the answer was far more obvious than it actually was.

“Oh yeah, because trust is usually earned by some half-assed torture plot,” Andy answered shaking his head in disappointment.  “What’s the deal with you anyway?  We’ve had people refuse our help before and it didn’t bother you before.”

“I feel bad for the kid, he’s out here on his own looking for someone who might be dead.”  Pete answered.

“I’m not a kid, and my brother isn’t dead,” Mikey murmured already feeling better now that his body was no longer dangling from a sturdy tree branch.  “I know Gerard, and I know that he wouldn’t die until made good on his promise.  You think I’m stubborn, but Gerard’s even more so when it comes to promises he has made.”

Mikey sat up suddenly aware of where his head was laying.  The world around him tilted a little as he did so, but he didn’t let it show.  Andy looked down at Mikey and then over at Pete, before extending his hand to Mikey to help him to his feet.  Mikey gladly accepted the offer swaying a little once he was on his feet.

“Come on, we’ll get you something to drink,” Andy said pointing Mikey to fire that was slowly burning itself into oblivion, as the sun finally started its official ascension.  “Get some sleep Pete.”

 

***

 

“Enjoy the fire?”  Patrick asked coming back from his lookout duties just after the colors of the sunrise bled into blue of the morning sky.

“Yeah,” Mikey replied seeing as he was the only one who hadn’t tried to squeeze in some last minute sleeping between the rising of the sun and the time they had to leave. “You know your friend Pete is an actual crazy person, right?”

“Only crazy can survive in the apocalypse,” Patrick said, “besides he’s not actually that bad, his heart is in the right place, it’s just that sometimes you take a few wrong turns to get there.”

“He took a few crazy turns,” Mikey said.

“You’ve got give him a break,” Patrick answered, “he’s been through a lot just like the rest of us.”

As if Pete could sense that Patrick and Mikey were talking about him he appeared behind the pair like a ghost.

“Mikey I want to apolo-” Pete started

“Don’t, I don’t want an apology,” Mikey interrupted, “I just want to find my brother.”

“I’m still sorry, I shouldn’t have left you hanging like that.”  Pete told Mikey anyway taking a seat on the log next to his.  They both stared at the ashes in the makeshift fire pit, some of them were still fighting to burn those that had gone cold around them, but they just couldn’t take.  Mikey cracked his neck, letting out a deep breath at the tension that seemed to be released with each crack down his back.  Patrick eyed the pair surprised they were able to keep quiet around each other, for some reason the silence sent a shiver down Patrick’s spine and he started to wish they were arguing instead.  Silence in the apocalypse was never a good sign. 

“Let’s pack up and head out,” Patrick said something not sitting right with him, “I’ll wake up Joe and Andy, and you start packing up the supplies we have left.  We’re going home.”

Pete nodded, those three words bringing along a sweet relief that made his chest flutter with excitement.  While he loved being a scout that could help people find safety, and forge for supplies to help the people in his new community, being there, his new home, made him feel like he still belonged somewhere.

Quickly Pete started to move around their small campsite collecting supplies that were worth keeping, preparing to go back to that place.  Looking at some of the things he was packing away into the duffle bags they carried he could see the difference in himself that the apocalypse had created.  Before he would never had thought twice about packing away a cell phone, but now as he looked at the cracked screen and the blood on the one they found he realized that it had no use.  Originally they thought it may have been salvageable, a connection to the technology they had lost, in hopes of recreating it and bringing back the era of easy communication, but now it just looked like a waste of space even if it was small.  Besides the camp had a collection of ruined cell phones and chargers in case they could get power running to it someday, so they didn’t need another.  He dropped it on the ground and kicked off in the distance.

It wasn’t just himself that he saw the changes in, he saw them the most in Joe and Patrick.  Andy wasn’t much different, he was a little less cheery, but then so was everybody else.  Joe was always high spirited, and enjoyed laughing almost as much as Pete, and now it was like the world around him had gone completely black and he couldn’t stand to be around any of his friends anymore, but more specifically Pete’s presence seemed to annoy him the most.  And Pete didn’t blame him for it, in the end he felt like he deserved a harder sentence than what Joe was giving him.  Patrick on the other hand just seemed to have sharper edges, and even though he was 22 and Pete 23, Patrick was in charge because of his sensibility and ability to work well with Andy, Joe, and Pete.  But the longer Patrick was forced to be the authority figure the more he let go of being the one with the bleeding heart.  Everything was driven by rationality for him now, rather than emotions like it used to be before the start of this horror show they were living.  Sure it kept them alive, but it didn’t much like living anymore.

Pete looked over his shoulder to see Mikey staring at his palm, and using the other hand to trace the lines on it.  Even though Pete didn’t know him from before, he knew he had changed, everyone did, it was unavoidable.  Pete just wanted to know how he had changed, who Mikey was before, and who he was now.  Not that it mattered, they were all changed for good.  Whoever anyone was before was dead and would never live again even if by some miracle all of this ended.  There were just too many things that couldn’t be undone, or unsaid, or unseen.  It just wasn’t possible.

Once they had everything packed Pete made his way over to Mikey carrying his backpack and bat.  He placed it on the ground behind Mikey.

“Ready?”  Pete asked and Mikey turned to look over at him.

“What if it’s him?” Mikey asked, “What if it’s not?”

“If it’s him, you get your closure, and you bury him with the same respect you buried Ray.” Pete answered, “And if it’s not then...well I don’t know, that’s up to you.  Either way we’ll do what we can to help you.  Come on.”  

Mikey nodded suddenly feeling like either way it was going to hurt, but in two very different ways, and he wasn’t sure which would hurt more and which he could handle.  Last night all he wanted to do was go see if one of those things were his brother, and if not go find him so they could make good on Gerard’s promise.  If one them was Gerard, Mikey would find some way to fulfill Gerard’s promise for him, because he knew Gerard would do the same.

Without saying anything Mikey grabbed his things and started to cross the river.  As he did, he noticed that Pete was deliberately avoiding looking at the water like it might hurt him.  It was surprise that he didn’t slip or trip on a rock on his way across.  Once they were on the other side Patrick took the lead keeping his gun up as precaution, and Mikey noticed that Joe took up the back walking backwards with his gun up as well.

“Here, for energy,” Andy offered Mikey a granola bar.

“Thanks,” Mikey said taking it and carefully unwrapping it.  His stomach growled as he took a bite, but the nerves that was consuming him almost made him throw up.  He pushed it back down knowing he needed the energy that it would provide later on.  “Why are you walking like this?”

“To make sure everything goes smoothly,” Andy said, “we take turns, and if we travel with a larger group we usually cover our sides too.  It’s just to make sure we get home safe and sound.”

“Home?”  Mikey asked, “What do you mean home?”  

“That’s what I was trying to tell you about before...well it doesn’t matter.”  Pete said cutting himself off.  “It’s a camp, probably the biggest one around.  It’s what passes as civilization now, and we’re dedicated to helping as many people as we can.  The goal is to try to start over, and find a way to end this disaster once and for all.”

“Dreaming big, don’t you think?” Mikey asked.  He had run into to camps like that enough times before to know that they never last.  Disaster always managed to strike just in the nick of time when they felt like they were making progress.  It was easier just to avoid them.

“It’s not like we have much else to do,” Pete answered.

“Alright we’re getting close to the zombies from last night,” Patrick said, “prepare yourself for the worst, because anything less will be a pleasant surprise.”

Mikey nodded, but he still wasn’t sure what the worst case scenario was here.  One lead to a definitive answer to the question Mikey couldn’t stop asking himself, and the other one lead to too many questions that Mikey wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to answer.  But when he saw that zombies Pete had put down last night didn’t have that bright red hair he was looking for he sighed in relief.  But that still wasn’t enough for him, zombies lost hair in chunks, and sometimes the hair lost it color, he wouldn’t know for sure unless he got closer.  Pushing past Patrick he ran ahead to the close the distance.  Patrick held out his arm keeping the other three back.

“Give him space,” Patrick told them.  They all watched as Mikey circled the zombies using the toe of his boot to get a better look at them.  When he made to the last one they watched as he inspected it and then dropped to his knees.

“That can’t be a good sign,” Joe said void of any kind of emotion.

“Poor kid,” Andy whispered hanging his head.

“He’s not a kid,” Pete said his heart feeling heavy for Mikey.

“Alright, we’ll help him bury-”  Patrick started to say, but was cut off when Mikey fired his gun.  They were all too busy making their own comments to notice the pack of zombies that were heading their direction.  Mikey had already taken one down without even standing up, and there were only three left.  Patrick, Andy, Joe and Pete all aimed, but held their fire when Mikey shot to his feet and took off towards the zombies.  His bat was poised and he swung with so much anger he took two heads off at once, they went rolling across the ground as he turned to face the last one.  But before he could get to putting it down Pete shot, the bullet going straight through its head temple to temple.

“He’s a pretty angry guy,” Joe said, “I think I like him.”  Joe was the first one to go after him.  The other three followed preparing their condolences, Patrick readying his speech to try to convince Mikey come with them one last time.

“I’m sorry,” Pete was the first to say it, but Mikey wasn’t facing any of them.

“It’s not him,” Mikey said keeping his back towards them to keep them from knowing he was crying a little.  “None of them are my brother.”  He wiped his eyes before turning around his bat resting on his shoulder.

“That’s good.” Patrick said placing his hand on Mikey’s shoulder.

“Is it?”  Mikey asked still not sure what this meant.  Just because none of these zombies were Gerard, didn’t mean he wasn’t one.  But Mikey wasn’t going to give up, not on Gerard, not on his brother.


	4. Chapter 4

For a moment everything was still and silent.  Nobody said anything because they didn’t have a real answer to give Mikey.  The four of them all viewed the situation from different perspectives and were too afraid to share how they really felt about the matter.  But the silence made them all even more uncomfortable than giving their two cents to this person they really didn’t know. But the silence didn’t last long, an inevitable sound of a zombie howl coming from behind them stole their attention.

  
“It looks like a horde, I can’t count for sure but there has to be about a hundred of them” Joe called out eyeing the zombies coming their way.

  
“They look fresh too,” Andy said, “they’re moving fast.”

  
“Think we can outrun them?” Pete asked looking at Patrick who simply shook his head.

  
“We can outrun the ones in the back,” Mikey said pointing his bat, “they’re not freshly turned.  The ones up front will get to us a lot faster than the ones in back. The older ones will lag behind far enough that we’ll have time to put the front ones down and get out of here.  We just have to move fast, and give the fresh ones a reason to move faster.”

  
“What do you mean?” Pete asked.

  
“Make noise, lots of noise to attract them,” Joe answered for Mikey.  “You’re smart, kid.”

  
“Thanks, Meth Dealer,” Mikey said snidely.

  
“Alright time to make some noise,” Patrick said not really sure why Mikey had called Joe a meth dealer, but it didn’t matter.

  
“Here zombie, zombie, zombie,” Mikey taunted at the top of his lungs, “we’ve got breakfast for you.”  The other four followed his lead starting to yell, and making all kinds of noises while readying themselves to fight.  Everything was going to plan just as they had expected. The zombies that were leading the horde started to put their fresh abilities to use as they started to pick up speed.  All five of them stopped making noise taking a moment to breathe before everything started to get crazy.

  
“There’s not too many that are fresh,” Pete said, “we’ll be home free soon.”

  
“Here they come,” Patrick responded, “Joe you take the left side, Pete the right, I’ll cover the center; Andy, and Mikey you two clean up whatever gets passed us.”

  
Joe, Patrick, and Pete lifted their guns at the same time.  They lined up their sights and started firing. Andy watched glad he didn’t have to do anything just yet but put the brass knuckles on just in case.  It wasn’t that he was afraid, it was just because part of him was still a pacifist, even though killing these creatures was more helpful to them than it was hurtful.  Mikey, on the other hand, was itching to put some of those monsters down. Ignoring Patrick’s orders, Mikey sprinted forward and started swinging at everything he could get close enough to.

  
“Watch out for the kid,” Patrick called out to Joe and Pete.

  
“I see him,” Pete answered, “I’ll keep him covered.”  Pete carefully picked off the zombies that were in Mikey’s blindspot doing his best to keep Mikey from being bitten.  All of the sudden the zombies started to swarm Mikey, surprised to have a meal so close by and ready for the taking.

  
“Shit, I can’t get a clear shot,” Joe called, “I can’t see him anymore.”

  
“Me neither,” Patrick answered, “Pete?”

“I’ve got my sights on him, he’s doing fine right now,” Pete said holding back the worry he was starting to feel.  “I’ll put down the ones closest to him, you two go ahead and I’ll cover.”   


Patrick nodded, he turned to Andy and pointed at their bag with their ammo in it, “Help him stay locked and loaded.”

“Will do,” Andy said reaching into the bag and finding an extra clip that matched the gun Pete was using.  He loaded it and got ready to hand it to Pete for whenever he would need it. It always made Pete nervous being the one to lay down cover fire, especially when the others were trying to put zombies down at close range.  It meant that they would be moving a lot and the chances of Pete hitting one of them increased with each move they made. Just because he could see them, didn’t mean they wouldn't move just in time to collide with his bullet. “You’re doing great,”  Andy told Pete knowing that he would rather be down there fighting than be the one shooting in the direction of team members. He told Andy so, one night at camp when he was thinking back on the day it all started, saying he never wanted to shoot anyone he cared about again.

  
Pete took a deep breath and kept firing head shots, “I’m out,” he told Andy pulling the clip out of the gun.  Andy took it as swiftly as possible and gave Pete the one he loaded. Pete raised the gun again, the fresh ones starting to dwindle down, and just like Mikey said the older ones were far enough behind they could easily run from them.  Confident now, Pete lined his sight up with a zombie that was approaching Mikey from behind, he placed his finger over the trigger, took a final deep breath, and tapped it. The bullet went soaring through the air just as Mikey turned swinging his arm.  “Oh no,” Pete gasped as the bullet tore through Mikey’s raised upper left arm and embedded itself in the bone of his right elbow. Through his scope, Pete watched as Mikey’s face twisted in agony and blood started to spill. The zombies that were going after Joe and Patrick started towards Mikey the smell of his blood attracting them like moths to flames.

  
Mikey stayed on his feet but had dropped his bat when the bullet went through his arm.  He was defenseless now, and his wound was bringing the zombies to him even faster. It felt like at this moment his life could end, and he was okay with that as long as somebody was there to put a bullet his head, but just because he would accept it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try to fight it first.  Even though it brought him even more pain he pulled his gun out of his waistband. Mikey started firing as fast as he could but after the first bullet found a home in the brain of zombie nearby he remembered that he never reloaded. There weren’t many left, and he could see Joe and Patrick putting them down as fast as possible if he could just stick it out until they made it to him everything would be fine.  But that was a hell of a lot easier said than done.

  
“Pete you have to keep shooting,” Andy urged, “he’s going to be a lot worse than shot if you don’t.”  But Pete couldn’t move, he was in too much shock. Andy shook his head and grabbed Pete’s gun from him.  He wasn’t as good of a marksman as Pete was, but to keep them safe he would try. Through the scope of the gun, Andy could see that Mikey was losing a lot of blood, as he swayed doing his best to hit anything that got close to him with his pistol.  Andy fired the gun still not a fan of the recoil or pulling the trigger. He could count five more surrounding Mikey with the horde approaching them. Two of them were lined up perfectly and with the close range, Patrick was at he would no problem taking them down with one bullet.  It looked like Joe was out of bullets but using the but of his gun to put down the one closest to him. Andy fired again taking care of one of the other two, and just as Mikey collapsed to the ground he fired again taking down the final zombie. Patrick and Joe rushed to Mikey getting him to his feet, draping his arms over their shoulders.

  
“Get the stuff and go,” Patrick called to Andy and Pete.  “We’ve got him get him back to camp.”

  
***

  
Pete wasn’t sure how, but they had made it back to their base camp in no time.  As always there were people waiting for them to get back, what passed as doctors in their apocalypse camp rushed Mikey off to the infirmary tent.  Pete wanted to go with them, to make sure that the moment Mikey woke up he could apologize, explain that he thought he was helping, but he had to follow protocol just like Andy, Joe, and Patrick did.

  
“Is that everything?” Cassandra, the woman that they always checked their supplies in with upon return, asked Pete trying to catch his eyes with her own.  “Pete, did you check everything in?”

  
“Uh, no,” Pete said holding up the bloody bat and Mikey’s backpack, “these are Mikey’s things.”

  
“Mikey?” Cassandra asked finally looking to Patrick for help.

  
“The kid we brought in with us, the one that was sh...injured in the field.”  Patrick clarified, thinking better of saying that Mikey was shot. Pete already felt bad enough about it, he didn’t need Patrick saying it right in front of him.  “I don’t think he plans on staying, so I’ll keep his stuff in our team safe. It’s just a bunch of supplies and his bat.”

  
“I don’t know,” Cassandra said, “you know the rules about weapons.”

“If he wants to stay I’ll bring it back here myself to get it checked in,” Patrick promised.

“Alright, just don’t tell anyone,” Cassandra conceded, “you’re all set to go in.  Oh and Joe, Marie has missed you like crazy. She wouldn’t shut up about you the entire time you were gone.”  Pete watched as a smile spread across Joe’s face. It was always like this when they got back, and it was one of the few times Joe would ever smile.  If there was anything good that had come out of the apocalypse it was Marie, at least for Joe it was. 

When the gatekeepers finally let them in Marie was right there, her arms wide open.  For a moment the world stopped, and Joe saw hope for the future in her eyes. He rushed to her enveloping her in a hug lifting her off her and pulling as close to himself as humanly possible.     


“I missed you,” he whispered in her ear, “I always miss you.”  He placed a gentle kiss on her jawline the smell of her hair filling his nose.

  
“Missed you too,” Marie replied squeezing Joe as tightly as she could muster like she had been saving up all her energy for this moment.  “I love you.”

  
“I love you too sweetheart,” finally their embrace came to an end.  But their fingers stayed intertwined as Marie lead Joe away from the entrance.

  
A few people called out to Andy, Pete, and Patrick in a greeting, but Pete couldn’t process anything around him.  Andy grimaced seeing the way Pete just stood there like he was hollowed out. 

  
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him,” Patrick told Andy, “why don’t you go relax a little.”

  
“You sure?” Andy asked Patrick wearily, “You took the last lookout shift, you must be exhausted.”

  
“Yeah, I’m sure,”  Patrick said nodding towards the inside of the camp.  Andy made his way further inside the camp looking over his shoulder one last time unsure if leaving Patrick to help Pete was the best idea.  But when he looked over and saw the way Pete was hugging Patrick like he was the last lifeline Pete had Andy knew everything would be okay.

  
“I didn’t mean to shoot him,” Pete said to his best friend.

  
“I know,” Patrick answered, “you couldn’t have known he would turn like that.”

  
“I should’ve predicted it,” Pete replied letting Patrick go and put distance between them.

  
“I’m telling you Pete, you couldn’t have predicted that Mikey was going to turn around.” Patrick tried again, but he could see it in Pete’s eyes that it would take a lot more than Patrick trying to make him feel better to get him realize that it wasn’t possible for him to have known that Mikey would’ve made the move he did.  “Come on, you need to get some rest and I need to put this stuff in the safe.” Patrick started to make his way towards the barracks that his team was set up in, but Pete had other plans.  
  


  
***   
  


  
Both of Mikey’s arms ached when he came to, and yet he noticed the silence first.  It wasn’t a complete silence, but it was unnerving. There was this constant buzz of chatter, it was quick paced, and each voice seemed to blend into the next, but none of it was in the same room as him.  All around Mikey, everything was white and for a moment he wondered if all of that zombie apocalypse bullshit he had gone through was some comatose nightmare he had been trapped in because it was hard to see this room as anything other than a hospital.  But out of the corner of his eye, he saw one thing that told him he wasn’t so lucky after all. Pete was slumped over in a chair, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, he didn’t seem to notice that Mikey was awake. At first, Mikey didn’t say anything, he just took in what he could of Pete’s side profile.  His dark hair was sticking up all over the place like he had run his hands through it too many times to count, and his face was caked with dirt and grime. Mikey winced at how short Pete’s nails were like they were bitten down to point where it must have been painful, and the dried blood on the sides of them proved that it did.  


“Do you usually shoot the people you claim to be helping?”  Mikey joked. Pete sprung to his feet and let out a loud exhale.   


“I’m so sorry,” Pete said instantly ignoring Mikey’s failed attempt at humor.  Mikey was going to speak, but Pete kept going. “I saw that monster behind you, and it looked like you had no idea that it was there.  I couldn’t let you get bitten, it was my job to lay down cover fire, so that’s what I tried to do. I didn’t...I didn’t know you were going to try to put it down.  I thought it was going to get you-”   


“Don’t worry about it,” Mikey cut him off, “it was an accident.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Pete said again falling back into the chair he was sitting in before.  Mikey watched as Pete started to bounce his leg up and down and went to bite his nails again, but there wasn’t much left for him to bite at.  Even though he wasn’t sure he was supposed to Mikey sat up, and swung his legs over the side of the bed. When he tried to turn to face Pete head on, he felt the tug of the IV in his arm explaining why he didn’t feel too much pain.  He looked around the room, which wasn’t a room at all, but a white tent filled with medical supplies. Mikey hadn’t seen so many medical supplies since the time he had to go to the hospital for breaking his arm in his sophomore year of high school.

  
“Where am I?” Mikey asked shocked to see all of the stuff that was before him.

  
“Our camp,” Pete said, “or as it’s more commonly known: The Camp of The Last of the Real Ones.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Did you see it coming?”  Pete asked Mikey as they slipped out of the tent.  Pete held the flap out of Mikey’s way so he wouldn’t have to use his arms too much.  The wounds were wrapped up; Mikey could move his arms but it hurt. He didn’t say so to Pete because he didn’t want to make him feel worse than he already did, especially since Pete was only trying to keep him from dying.  The only reason he was allowed to the leave the infirmary tent so soon was because they needed space for other people, and they didn’t have enough morphine to keep him hooked up to anyway.

  
“The bullet?  No, if I had we-”

  
“No, not the bullet, the apocalypse.”  Pete clarified leading Mikey towards the barracks so he could get something he claimed he desperately needed out of his bag.  He refused to say, and Pete felt too guilty to push for an answer.

  
“I don’t really know how to answer that,” Mikey said his face twisting in confusion of his own possible answer.  “I wouldn’t say I saw coming, but I wouldn’t say that I didn’t.”

  
“I get that,” Pete said understanding exactly what Mikey meant.

  
“Actually, it’s a funny story,” Mikey said trying to fill the silence.  “August 28th, I was having an oddly okay day, the kind that shouldn’t be something you remember vividly, just a normal day.  I mean it was alright for a Monday.”

  
“That’s the day before the apocalypse started,” Pete said more so to confirm it with himself than to just say something.

  
“Right,” Mikey nodded, “but the weird thing is I remember walking down the street and looking up at the sky.  I was shocked because it was all clouds; those ugly gray ones that look like they’re out to get you, and there was this random heavy breeze that put my stomach in knots.  It was the kind of weather that you don’t associate with late August, but more like early March. It was too cold, and too dark, and too ominous. It almost felt like the world itself was dying.  And I couldn’t help thinking If the apocalypse is going to happen it’s going to start today. But then it started to rain and I abandoned the thought so I could get home and out of the rain. The next morning I woke up, and the weather was perfect.  The sun shining, bluest sky I’ve ever seen, and all that other Disneyesque picture perfect bullshit. Gerard and I decided to meet Ray to go see some movie, I don’t even remember what it was, and we were supposed to meet up with someone else, but he had something come up.  About halfway through the outbreak started and well the rest is…” Mikey trailed off and moved his left arm to say look around forgetting about the wound. He winced as the stitches pulled tight, starting to itch now that he reminded himself that they were there.

  
“Maybe you’re psychic,” Pete said pushing up the door to one of the two buildings in the camp.  He let Mikey go in first before following behind and closing the door.

  
“I wish, if I was I would’ve prepared for this nightmare, or I would’ve at least done so many things differently on that last day,” Mikey looked down at his boots, “do you remember your last day?”

“I try not to think about it,” Pete answered, “I was an idiot on my last day, more so than usual.”

“What about your first day?”  Mikey asked as Pete lead him into a room that had two sets of bunk beds, a safe, and nothing else.  It didn’t look like a home, but it looked more like a home than anything Mikey had seen in over a year.

“I made some tough decisions that entire first month,” Pete answered catching the attention of Joe.  He and Marie were the only two in the room, and they were laying on Joe’s bed whispering to each other but stopped when Pete came into the room.  “I don’t think about that either.” Pete averted his eyes and made his way to the safe.

“How you feeling kid?” Joe asked Mikey pointing to Mikey’s bandages.

“Just dandy,” Mikey replied, “and I’m-”

“Not a kid,” Joe teased, “yeah I get it.”  An almost smile teased the edges of Joe’s lips before he turned his full attention back towards Marie.  Mikey watched as Joe gently placed his hand on Marie’s lower abdomen, his thumb tracing a circle on the skin that was exposed where her t-shirt had ridden up.  Her hand cupped the side of his face looking at him the way his mother used to look at his father when they didn’t think anyone else was around. Privacy was shot to hell with the world when the apocalypse decided to make its grand entrance.

“Hey,” Pete said gaining Mikey’s attention, “here’s your stuff.”

“Thanks,” Mikey said putting his backpack on and grabbing his bat.  “Where’s my gun?”

“In your bag,” Pete answered scrunching his eyebrows together, “but there are no weapons allowed inside the camp.”

“Well good, I’ll take them with me just like I was planning to,” Mikey answered inspecting the bat.  “So how do I get out of here?” 

“You can’t leave,” Pete said shaking his head.

“Yeah I can, there’s no law stating that I have to stay,” Mikey said propping the bat up onto his shoulder looking up at Pete.  “There are no laws at all actually.” Mikey couldn’t look at Pete though, there was a clear look of guilt set in his features that made Mikey feel awful for thinking about leaving.

“You should at least stay until the wounds heal enough that they won’t get infected.”  Pete tried, “You don’t want to die from an infection do you?”

“Almost just as much as you don’t want to die of dehydration,” Mikey answered.  He thought about it for a moment and with a heavy sigh, he stepped around to put his things back into the safe.  He was about to close it when last minute he reached into his bag and pulled something out of it placing it in his back pocket before Pete could sneak a glance at it.  “I’ll stay the night, but then I’m finding my brother.”

Pete nodded relocking the safe.  Mikey followed Pete out of the building and back into the sunlight.  On the way out he caught a glimpse of Joe kissing Marie’s forehead, his hand still resting almost protectively over her belly, and as soon as they left the room the two started to whisper to each other.

“Don’t you think that’s weird?” Mikey questioned.

“What?” 

“The way they’re just going on, starting a relationship, getting so close to each other, like life is normal.” 

“You mean falling in love?”  Pete said stopping where he stood making Mikey stop as well.  He squared his shoulders and looked Mikey in the eyes, “The world has gone to shit, people have gone crazy, and there’s more of the living dead than the living.  If we’re not allowed to fall in love anymore, then there really isn’t a point of trying. Besides, Joe deserves her.”

“So the fact that she’s pregnant isn’t weird to you?”  Mikey asked.

“What are you talking about?  Marie isn’t pregnant.” Pete retorted shaking his head and screwing his face into a look of disbelief.

“Whatever you say,” Mikey muttered, not feeling up to arguing with Pete over this. 

“Where are you taking me anyway?”

“To get something to put in your stomach,” Pete said eyeing Mikey up.  Mikey shifted from foot to foot knowing what was coming next. “You’re a fucking twig, I’m not sure how you’ve lasted this long.”  That was it, the same thing he had heard over and over again. His size was always some kind of interesting puzzle to the people around, even pre-apocalypse.  “Come on.”

As Pete lead Mikey towards the second building, Mikey looked around.  This base was like the others he had seen, tents scattered in an open field, people living like they were camping, garden plots, and the most notable thing was the large fence surrounding the base that everyone puts too much faith in.  Mikey watched as two kids who couldn’t be more than six each chased each other around, getting close to the fence, he looked away just as one of them fell into it. The sound reverberated in his mind, and he shuddered; it was closely followed by the distant sound of someone yelling at them telling them to stay away from the fence.

“Are you alright?” Pete asked looking back at Mikey.  Pete could tell something was wrong because Mikey’s face was twisted into a mixture of disdain and sort of pain. 

“I thought we went over this,” Mikey brushed Pete off.  Just because Mikey knew the reality of what this camp would more than likely become before any of these people could even think to stop it, didn’t mean he was going to ruin the fantasy of it for anyone.  It gave them a dose of hope, and trying to survive without any hope was far more fatal than trying to live some fantasy. 

Pete didn’t get Mikey, one minute he was opening up to Pete, and the next he was shutting Pete down like he was beneath him.  It was confusing enough living in a new version of his world, a version that was straight out of some tv show or movie, but now there was this stranger who didn’t seem to get the memo that nobody is ever really strangers in the apocalypse.  Privacy and formal introductions were part of the past now it was all about surviving and trying to help other people survive, or at least that’s how Pete saw it. Then again it hadn’t always been like that for him.

“Fair enough,” Pete replied leading Mikey into the main building and into the mess hall.  He watched Mikey’s face waiting for some kind of approval or at least a hint of surprise, but there was nothing.

“What?” Mikey asked Pete looking behind him half expecting to see someone running around holding a sign saying Pete sucks on it because of disappointed on it he looked.

“Uh, nothing,” Pete said looking at Mikey.  He had no wrinkles on his face, no laugh lines, or anything that even hinted at him ever had expressing any kind of emotion ever.  But he had seen that look on Mikey’s face earlier, the anger on his face as he tore that zombie apart, the sadness when he saw Ray’s zombie, and of course there was the pain when he had gotten shot.  Pete couldn’t get that image out of his head. He couldn’t help but think that a face like that should never have anything but a smile on it. Mikey raised his eyebrows at Pete, snapping Pete out of his thoughts.  “Right, you can grab a plate. We don’t have much, and we’re rationing a lot these days because we’re heading into really bad time for gardening. Right now we aren’t serving any meat because, well, we don’t actually have any.”

“It’s all good,” Mikey said grabbing a plate, “I’ve been a vegetarian for about a year now.”

“That would be more impressive if it weren’t for the apocalypse,” someone interrupted from behind Mikey and Pete.

  
***

  
There were rumors going around camp that there was a new arrival.  It spread like wildfire, especially the part about this person actually being a prisoner, not a willing new addition.  Frank didn’t usually listen to the rumors around camp, it was far too much like high school in his opinion and they were all far beyond high school at this point.  But this one was really hard to ignore, especially the version of it he had heard.

“We have prisoners,” he had overheard two teens whispering to each other.  As much as he hated to admit it, the word prisoners had him intrigued. “Apparently Pete had to shoot one of them to keep him from attacking Andy, and when the other one saw what a great marksman Pete was they surrendered.”

“Oh really,” the girl replied, “and who told you that?  Was it Pete?”

“No, Sarah, it wasn’t Pete,” the boy responded exasperated, “I have it on good authority that this is all true.”

“Sure it is Brendon,” Sarah said back.  Frank could almost hear her eyes roll.

“It’s true,” Brendon responded almost shouting, “they’re brothers.  They were traveling with a friend who turned, and Pete put that friend down.  The younger brother was pissed so he attacked.”

“How do I know you’re not making this all up to make your hero, Pete, look good?”  Sarah challenged. Frank smirked, the girl had fire.

“Listen, I’m telling the truth, Sarah,” Brendon tried again.  Frank internally scoffed, he didn’t believe a word, and the scoff that Sarah let out told him that she didn’t either.  “I am. Their names are Mikey and Gerard.”

Frank’s entire body froze.  There was no way he had heard this kid correctly.

“What...what did you just say?” Frank asked looking over at the teens.

“We have prisoners-”

“Their names,” Frank said shaking his head, “what did you say their names are?”

“Mikey and Gerard?”  Brendon replied questioning himself now, he looked to Sarah for help, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“Where are they,” Frank asked almost grabbing the kid by the collar.

“I don’t know about the older one,” Brendon said making Frank’s heart sink, “but I guess the younger one is acting like Pete’s shadow.”

“Oh like you can talk,” Sarah said with a little laugh.  “I’m surprised you’re not with him right now.”

“I’d rather be with you,” Brendon smiled broadly, making Sarah blush.

“Hey, hate to interrupt the teen romance,” Frank said, “but do you know where Pete might be.”

“He’s probably hungry,” Brendon said, “from being up all last night keeping an eye on his prisoner.  I’d say the mess hall.”

“Thanks,” Frank answered.  He looked down at his feet to see his dog staring up at him wondering what he was doing.  Before he moved he reminded himself that this probably wasn’t real, that it could just be a coincidence or some cruel joke that the universe was playing on him.  As he bent down to pick Sweet Pea, he thought but Gerard isn’t a common name anymore.

He pushed open the mess hall doors just in time to catch the tail end of some conversation.  But he heard it, a familiar voice.

“It’s all good, I’ve been a vegetarian for about a year now.”  It was Mikey, and Frank knew that wherever one Way was, the other wasn’t too far.

“That would be more impressive,” Frank said feeling elated, “if it weren’t for the apocalypse.”

Mikey spun around so fast he almost dropped the plate he was holding.  They both stared at each other for awhile, not really sure what to say or do.  Finally, Frank placed Sweet Pea on the ground and hugged Mikey. For a moment, Mikey hesitated, he couldn’t believe that Frank was right there in front of him.  And even though he was happy to see Frank, he just couldn’t feel it because he was about to break Frank’s heart. 

“Do you two know each other?” Pete asked from behind Mikey, forcing them to pull apart.

“No,” they both said sarcastically.

“Is this your brother?  I thought you said something about bright red hair.” Pete asked falling further into a spiral of confusion.

“Wait, Gerard’s not here?” Frank stepped back.  It was clear that his heart had been broken just like Mikey expected it would be.

“No,” Mikey sighed, “I don’t know where he is.”

“What about Ray?” Frank asked, and then he remembered what Brendon had said:  _ They were traveling with a friend who turned, and Pete put that friend down _ .  

“He...Ray turned, and Pete put him down,” Mikey said putting to Pete over his shoulder with his left arm.  He winced from the pull of the stitches and wished he could have just a little more morphine for how much pain this conversation was making him feel.

“You,” Frank said pointing at Pete, who straightened up upon being addressed, “who do you think you are shooting two of my friends?”  Frank stepped forward, but Mikey stopped him. He knew this routine. Frank was hurt, but he didn’t want anyone to know it so he put forth anger to replace the pain.

“He didn’t mean to,” Mikey said, “it was an accident, and I’m okay.  He feels bad enough about it, and just because you’re upset doesn’t mean you have to take it out on him.”

Frank took a deep breath, and that’s when he realized his entire body was shaking.  He didn’t know how to feel about anything, but he knew it hurt. Mikey placed his hand on Frank’s shoulder and dragged him to a nearby table.  Pete wasn’t sure what to do, but he followed them anyway. 

“What happened?” Frank asked as he picked Sweet Pea up and placed her on his lap.

“A lot, it’s been a long year,” Mikey said not looking at Frank, “but Gerard has dragged Ray and I around trying to find you just like he promised.”  A small ghost of a smile formed the edge of Frank’s lips.

“Are you alright?” Frank asked.

“As alright as I can be,” Mikey lied.  Pete looked at him in shock, just as Mikey glanced up.  He made quick eye contact with Pete, before looking away knowing he had been caught in a lie, but he had done it for Frank’s sake.  And Pete could see that in Mikey’s eyes so he didn’t say anything. Pete understood now that Mikey hadn’t meant to say everything he had said when Pete asked if he was alright, it was all just too much for him to keep in, at that moment.

“At least that makes one of us,” Frank responded.

“I’m going to find him,” Mikey said this time looking Pete dead in the eyes, “and nobody will stop me.”


	6. Chapter 6

Pete watched Mikey’s hands.  It was odd how much he moved them like he had no idea what to do with them or what their general purpose was.  Somehow they were far more expressive than his face, and oddly enough they seemed to be almost beautiful. One thing he recognized were those calluses that decorated them, a reminder of a life before.  

“Bob?” Pete was pulled back into the conversation by the utter astonishment he had heard in Frank’s voice.

“Yeah,” Mikey gritted through his teeth, “the fucking poser screwed us over, just like he did with the band.”

“What happened?”

“We were doing as great as we could be,” Mikey said, “it almost seemed like Ray, Gee and I shouldn’t have made it as long as we did.  Ray kept us rational, Gee stayed strong for us, and I was just angry so we really shouldn’t have made it this long. I guess we should’ve known seeing Bob was a bad omen.  We were passing through some town, and there he was. He looked so alone and hurt. I said we should just keep going, Ray said we couldn’t abandon him, so we took a vote after a heated debate.  Gee sided with Ray. We told him he could join us, and he was glad to. About two days later we stopped in another town. It was late so we decided to take shifts, and even though he screwed us over before we let him take the second one.  I took the first, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. All of the sudden we hear Bob yelling about being surrounded. At first, it seemed like we were surrounded by zombies, but then Ray pointed out that zombies swarm, they don’t circle. Bob set us up.  Apparently, he was apart of one of those fucked up gangs that capture zombies and use them as weapons to rob other humans. Some of the people that encircled us were holding onto chains that acted like leashes to zombies, they let them loose after they got our stuff from us.  Only they weren’t expecting an entire horde to be heading our way, and Bob being the dumbass he was set off some kind of giant explosion that caused this giant wall of fire. I was on one side, and Gee and Ray were on the other. I saw my backpack, and bat, I grabbed them and I ran.  I fled like a fucking coward.” Mikey balled his hands up into fists and slammed them down on the table. Sweet Pea stirred in Frank’s lap, but other than that nobody else reacted.

Pete’s eyes roamed over Mikey’s face looking for something, anything, but there was nothing there.  While his knuckles were turning white in anger his face was set in emotionless stone like it didn’t get the memo that Mikey was angry with himself.  But when Pete looked over at Frank he could see that this was normal, because he didn’t seem shocked that Mikey didn’t look all affected by his own anger.

“You’re not a coward,” Pete answered when Frank clearly started tripping over his own thoughts.  Mikey looked up at Pete, and for a moment something flashed in those eyes. Something adjacent to gratitude and almost identical to disbelief, Pete had no idea what emotion that could be, but he knew it must hurt.

“He’s right,” Frank said finally catching up to his thoughts.  “Gerard and Ray would’ve wanted you to go, we all know that. I say we go find Gerard, and we make Bob pay.”

“I already did,” Mikey whispered, “he turned, and I put him down.”  

“It was brutal,” Pete chimed in.  Frank side eyed Pete and then looked over to Mikey asking a silent question one that Mikey wasn’t quite sure how to answer.  He had no idea what to make of Pete quite yet.

“You didn’t seem too surprised to see me,” Mikey said suddenly feeling a little nauseous and desperate for some kind of change of topic. 

“Some kids were talking about prisoners,” Frank said scratching Sweet Pea behind the ears.  “The boy said their names were Mikey and Gerard so, I figured it had to be the Ways.”

“How would they know your brother’s name?”  Pete asked raising his eyebrows.

“I was talking about Gerard to Andy by the fire,” Mikey replied shrugging his shoulders, “he must’ve said something to someone.  Or maybe Joe heard us talking and he said something to someone. It’s up in the air.”

Pete was about to speak up when his shadow came through the door.  He was holding hands with Sarah who seemed to be a little embarrassed by even the slightest hint of PDA they were sharing with the camp.  

“That’s the kid,” Frank said nodding his chin towards Brendon.  As if Brendon could sense the eyes on him he turned to look over at the table.

“Hey Pete!” Brendon called enthusiastically, using his free hand to wave.  Mikey, Frank, and Pete watched as Brendon leaned in close whispering something to Sarah.  At first, she was protesting, shaking her head, but finally, she gave in nodding her head and gesturing at the table.  But the three were surprised when Sarah turned on her heal and left after swiping an apple from the counter. Mikey was surprised he hadn’t noticed the apples before, he hadn’t seen one in a while.

“You have apples here?”  He asked shocked as Brendon plopped down next Frank.

“Yeah, there’s an apple tree in the back of the camp,” Pete replied.

“Is this the prisoner?” Brendon spoke over Pete, but went ignored for a moment.  “Is it?” He repeated.

“I’m not an it,” Mikey said holding back a wince as he tried to cross his arms over his chest, “and I’m not a prisoner.”

“Where’s the other one?”  Brendon asked directing the question towards Pete, completely ignoring Mikey.

“There isn’t another one,” Pete said, “where did you hear there was?”

“Well,” Brendon said rubbing the back of his neck, looking bashfully at the table.  “I may or may not have heard Andy and Joe talking about brothers and misinterpreted the bits of information I had accidentally overheard.”

“Accidentally my ass,” Pete scoffed, “and stop spreading rumors this isn’t high school…”  
“It’s the apocalypse,” Brendon finished for Pete rolling his eyes.  “Yeah, yeah, I get it. When can I go out scouting with you?”  
“You know the rules, nobody under eighteen goes scouting.”

“Well that’s a dumb rule,” Brendon huffed, “I’m only a few months off.”

“Well it’s actually over half a year from April,” Pete shot back, “so you’re wrong.”

“Wait,” Mikey interjected surprised, “you know the month?”

“It’s September sixteenth,” Pete replied.  He watched as Mikey’s face flashed a quick look of surprise that he quickly buried underneath an almost unnoticeable shrug, and as he did so he casted his eyes down at his hands.

“Happy belated birthday,” Frank spoke up after a few moments of thick silence.  “You must be-”

“Twenty-one,” Mikey replied, “I’ve been twenty-one for six days and had no idea.”  Pete watched as Mikey leaned forward and pulled what he had decided to keep on him earlier out of his pants pocket.  Up close Pete could see it was just a simple black wallet, but the sight of it kind of surprised Pete because nobody else he knew had their wallet anymore.  Wallets were trivial since money and IDs really meant less than nothing, and even though Pete thought so when he saw Mikey’s he felt a longing for his own. “This is even more useless than it was six days ago,” Mikey said tossing his driver's license on the table in front of them, as it slid across the table, stopping only when it hit Pete’s fingertips, the red letters that read  _ Under 21 _ taunted Mikey.  Without another word Mikey left the table, leaving behind three confused people, and ID he had been holding onto for a little over a year even though there really was no point in doing so.

“Where are you going?”  Frank asked Mikey, but he didn’t get a response, instead, Mikey left the building.  “For fuck’s sake.” He was getting ready to follow Mikey, feeling a slight unease being away from one of the last people he knew he could count on, but Pete put his hand up to stop him.

“You should let him be,” Pete suggested shrugging his shoulders.

“You don’t know him,” Frank spat back, “so don’t tell me what I should do.”  After saying Frank knew Pete was right, but wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of hanging back.  Carrying Sweet Pea close to his chest Frank followed in Mikey’s footsteps, and as he passed the dish holding the apples he plucked one of the bright red ones off the top.  As the sunlight shone done on his face his pupils dilated painfully, but once he could see without squinting he saw that Mikey was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall.  Even though he thought Pete was right, Frank decided that Mikey could decide whether or not he wanted Frank around.

“It’s stupid,” Mikey said without even looking up, “I shouldn’t be so upset over something as stupid as my birthday.”

“It was a big birthday,” Frank said placing Sweet Pea on the ground and sitting next to Mikey.  “And there’s a lot more going on than just your birthday. Here.” He held the apple out to Mikey. 

“I’m alright,” Mikey said pushing Frank’s hand away.

“Listen,” Frank sighed, grabbing Mikey’s hand and placing the apple in his palm.  “I know that you and Gerard need each other, you two take care of each other when you can’t take care of yourselves.  You’re brothers, you’re best friends, and you’re each other’s lifelines. And since Gerard isn’t here, and I want to help him as much as I can I’m going to make sure you’re as safe and as healthy as someone can be in the zombie apocalypse.  Now, eat the fucking apple.”

Mikey took a reluctant bite of the apple Frank had given him.  The juice poured over his taste buds like a river of pure happiness.  It was like the taste of the apple brought him back, letting him remember the time before the virus.  Nothing had ever tasted so sweet, and so perfect. 

If the zombie apocalypse was teaching Mikey anything it was that the old saying  _ you don’t know what you have until you’ve lost it _ wasn’t some bullshit thing your mom said to guilt trip you into being more appreciative, but instead it was the truth and a sad one at that.  As he took another bite of the apple it was like a burst of nostalgia hit him in the gut. Memories of his mom’s failed attempts at making apple pies, drinking apple juice in beer mugs with Gerard as kids pretending to be like the grown-ups they saw on TV, going apple picking once with his family and it going completely sideways in a funny way, the perfect pie his grandma would always make for Thanksgiving and serving it with a giant scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.  Before he knew it the apple was gone and he was holding a bare core. It was gone, and bare, just like everything else.

“We need to find Gerard,” Mikey said turning the apple core over and over.

“We do,” Frank agreed, “but you can’t go out there with two bullet wounds, one for each arm.  You need to let them heal at least a little bit.”

“Frank, we have to find him,” Mikey insisted, “he needs us, I can feel it.”

“I know,” Frank said his stomach twisting a little with guilt, “but he’d kill us both if something bad happened to you.  Plus we have no idea where he is, we need a plan, to think critically about what we’re going to do. Gerard won’t die until he knows your safe.”

“I have a few comments,” Mikey turned to face Frank, “the first is that you’re way too calm to be the real Frank Iero.”

“I am the real Frank Iero, I promise you that,” Frank said pushing back his now long black hair to show Mikey the scorpion tattoo on his neck. 

“The second is that you’re sounding a lot like Ray right now and it’s slightly terrifying,” Mikey said starting to pick the apple seeds out of the core.

“Someone has to have some kind of rational thought without him,” Frank replied somberly the weight of the loss of Ray resting heavily on his heart, and Mikey nodded.

“The third is that Gerard wouldn’t die until he fulfilled his promise to you,” Mikey bumped his shoulder into Frank’s giving him a small smile.

“Well that’s because Gerard is a great guy,” Frank answered as a broad smile broke out across his face.

“And the final one, which horrifyingly painful for me admit, is that you’re right, well mostly right.”

“Okay,” Frank said not sounding at all convinced, “what do I have wrong?”

“I don’t have an exact idea of where Gerard is,” Mikey answered sounding like he wasn’t sure he believed what he would say next, “but he could be home.”

“What?” Frank asked shaking his head and furrowing his brow.

“We made a plan,” Mikey said, “that if we got separated we would meet back up at home, but that was early on.  I have no idea where I am, or if he even remembers that, but I’ve got to check it out. We have to check it out.”

 

***

 

Pete watched as Frank slipped out of the building holding the apple like a precious diamond and his dog with a delicateness that not many people had these days.

“Weird,” Brendon said, “why would he hold onto his wallet?”

“Who knows,” Pete answered taking Mikey’s ID off the table.  There it was, Mikey’s birthday September 10th, 1997 making him 21 on September 10th, 2018.  It turns out Mikey wasn’t a kid, just like he had said over and over again. He examined the picture, and was impressed by how good it was, nobody took good ID pictures, except for this.  But what really caught Pete’s attention was his name. It wasn’t just Mikey, it was Michael James Way. It was perfectly ordinary, but somehow fitting. “Hey, what’s your name?” Pete looked up at Brendon realizing he didn’t know Brendon’s full name despite the kid basically worshiped the ground he walked on.

“Oh, um it’s Brendon,” Brendon replied with a look of shock and hurt on his face.  “You didn’t know? I thought you would-”

“I know that,” Pete said sliding Mikey’s ID into the pocket of his jeans, “I mean your full name.”

“Oh,” Brendon exhaled in relief, “duh.  My name is Brendon Boyd Urie.”

“Boyd?  I wouldn’t have guessed it.  Anyway,” Pete said patting the table with his hand, “I’m going to go, I have to make sure out prisoner doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“So he is a prisoner?”  Brendon asked excitedly as Pete stood up.

“No kid, I was joking.”  Pete shook his head with a tiny chuckle falling from his lips.  As he got outside the building he heard Frank’s voice.

“Now, eat the fucking apple.”  It wasn’t a harsh tone, it was more so a tone a parent would use with a child that was being far too stubborn for its own good.  Something inside Pete sank low and heavily into his stomach, but he pushed it aside. He listened as Mikey and Frank continued to talk, and when Mikey brought up leaving Pete held back the urge to tell him to stay.  It turns out Pete didn’t have to tell him that, because was Frank was already on it. But when Mikey said he might know where Gerard was, Pete felt a twist in his gut, the kind he couldn’t quite place but knew would wind up getting him in trouble.  

“We have to check it out,” he heard Mikey say just as he stepped outside.

“You...we…”  Frank was tripping over his words, clearly conflicted.  “Mikey, you don’t even know where we are, how is Gerard supposed to find his way home?”

“Fuck you,” Mikey said, bolting to his feet, “I thought you’d at least want to help me find him since he dragged Ray and I around looking for your ass for an entire year.  He never gave up on you, and here you are living like you’re at a fucking summer camp with your dog. So much for loving him. I hope you’re happy with yourself Frank.” Pete watched as Mikey chucked the apple core against the wall above Frank’s head.  The bits sprayed over Frank’s head which was hung with shame.

“Mikey, come on,” Frank stood.

“No, Frank, you come on,” Mikey said pushing Frank with a surprising amount of force.  “He is all I have left, and we’ve done some awful shit to look for you. Shit that I’ll remember vividly until the day I die, shit that Gerard has had nightmares about, and what have you done Frank?  Played fetch with Sweet Pea?” He pushed Frank again, this time Frank slammed into the building behind him, almost whacking his head on the brick.

“Mikey, please,” Frank tried.

“Mikey, please,” Mikey mocked, “please don’t tell me about how awful it is out there.  About how you’ve fought tooth and nail. About how you’ve killed. About how Gerard has risked his lifetime and time again to find me while I’ve been eating apples and playing with my precious dog.  Mikey, please don’t ruin this mirage for me.”

With a few angry huffs, Mikey took a few steps backward allowing Frank to move off the wall.  But Frank didn’t look upset instead, he looked like an angry pitbull. Pete could see what was about to happen before Mikey even threw the punch.  It landed solidly on Frank’s right cheek bone. Frank was stunned and stumbled a step backward.

“I’m not going to hit you, kid,” Frank huffed even though the fire in his eyes said otherwise.

“I’m not a fucking kid,” Mikey hissed readying an uppercut, but Frank dodged it.  “I’m more of an adult than you are because I know what’s like out there.” He kicked out this time, and Pete knew that if this wasn’t an actual fight he would’ve laughed at how wimpy and pathetic that kick looked.

“Well you’re acting like a child,” Frank retorted.

“No you are,” Mikey countered trying to hit Frank again.  Frank blocked and took a swing at Mikey for himself. Frank’s fist collided right where the stitches in Mikey’s left arm were, and Mikey’s face screwed up in pain.  He took in a sharp inhale that he held for a while. Finally, Pete couldn’t take it, he stepped forward, putting himself between Frank and Mikey. The sound of Sweet Pea barking ringer and all three sets of ears.  Finally, Mikey exhaled, and over Pete’s shoulder he spit at Frank before saying, “You wouldn’t have hit me if you didn’t think any of it was true.”

“I’m sorry,” Frank said whipping the spit from his face.

“Save your, sorry,” Mikey said, “I’m not the one who gives a shit about you.”

“Okay,” Pete said as he saw Frank’s face contort into an utter look of pain.  He knew that look pretty well. “Okay, that’s too far.”

“Oh shut up,” Mikey told Pete, “and who the hell do you think you are anyway?  My father?”

“No,” Pete said shaking his head.  Frank scratched his forehead before walking away, his dog following close at his heels.  Pete turned to Mikey, and saw the emotion that was there slowly melting back into stoicism.  “That was harsh don’t you think?”

“And don’t you think that this heroic act you’re putting on is a little obnoxious?”  Mikey asked rolling his eyes.

“It’s not an act, I just lost my cape and spandex,” Pete said with a proud little smirk.

“Clever,” Mikey said completely unimpressed with Pete’s quick wit.

“Thank you,” Pete said looking down at Mikey’s arm where blood was seeping through his sleeve.  “Come on we have to get those stitches redone.”

Mikey didn’t say anything but followed Pete.  To avoid having to talk to him Mikey fell a few steps behind, and as the adrenaline from the argument wore off the pain of the torn stitches began to overcome Mikey’s entire arm.  The white tent was set up at the edge of camp, and had really horrible red paint on the said saying First Aid. It was clearly painted on there after the tent had been put up because the red paint had dripped making look like blood splatter.  

“Pete, back again so soon,” a girl cheered in greeting.  “And I see you’ve brought back our prisoner.” The girl laughed at her own joke, even shaking her head a little so that her blonde, almost white, high ponytail went flying around.

“Hey Hayley,” Pete greeted, “I need a favor, and I was kind of hoping you could help.”

Hayley looked at Mikey, before moving closer to Pete.  She turned Pete away from Mikey a little and said, “I can’t give you morphine, we’re running low and with your history-”

“No,” Pete said quickly, the back of his neck going red, “no I’m just...Mikey tore his stitches in an idiotic spat, I was hoping you could look at them and work your magic.” 

“Oh,” Hayley said as she started to blush too, “no of course.  I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Pete cleared his throat.

“Let me get some supplies, you two can take a seat.”  With that, Hayley hurried off.

“So,” Pete said taking a seat on a chair that would probably break soon, “you think Gerard may have gone back home.”

From where he was standing Mikey looked down on Pete.  His mouth was pressed into a thin line, and his eyes set to the default of boredom.  But Pete noticed the way his foot started to tap against the grass.

“Eavesdrop much?”  Mikey asked with a flat tone that told Pete nothing.

“Not really,” Pete answered looking up at Mikey just trying to find anything on that face that would give him some kind of clue as to what Mikey was thinking, but there was nothing.  But he did notice Mikey’s jawline. It was insanely perfect. Whatever cosmic being had crafted Mikey had put so much effort into that jawline that it probably should’ve signed it somewhere because it was a work of art.  A work of art that fit perfectly with his high cheekbones.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”  Mikey asked shifting from foot to foot. “Is it some weird tactic you use to try to convince people to stay at this camp of yours?”

“I got distracted,” Pete said honestly.

“By what?” Mikey asked his eyebrows raising slightly.  

“A piece of cosmic artwork,” Pete muttered, but luckily Mikey didn’t hear it over Hayley.

“Alright!”  Hayley called out coming back over to Mikey and Pete.  Pete hid his blush with his hand thanking the cosmos for letting Hayley’s eagerness come out in such a loud way that it was able to hide his stupidity.

 

***

 

“Mikey,” Joe called out when Pete dragged him back into the barracks that night.

“Hey,” Mikey responded surprised that Joe was acting so friendly.

“You can take my bed tonight,” Joe offered, “I’m going to stay with Marie.”  Right, Mikey thought to himself, he had almost forgotten about the way Joe and Marie had been acting earlier.

“Thanks,” Mikey nodded.

“No problem,” Joe responded, “I’ll see you around.”  He patted Mikey on the shoulder as he passed by. “Sleep tight, Patrick and Andy.”  And with that, he was gone, but Mikey didn’t miss the way he deliberately went out of his way to ignore Pete.  He looked over at Pete to see that there was a look of defeat on Pete’s face, but it almost looked like Pete was used to this.

“So you decided to stay,” Patrick said from the top bunk bed that was across from Joe’s.

“For the night,” Mikey clarified.

“Only the night?” Andy asked.  Mikey didn’t even notice he was even in the room because he was laying down on the bunk above Joe’s.

“Yeah, I’ve got to find my brother.” Mikey kicked off his shoes and climbed into the bed he was borrowing for the night.  Before he could turn to face the wall he caught a glimpse of Pete pulling off his shirt. His eyes lingered on the tattoo of what looked like a bat with a heart in the middle right below his navel.  Mikey couldn’t look away because it was such an odd tattoo, so when Pete took off his jeans Mikey saw the way his boxers slipped down in the front a little too. Embarrassed by what he had almost seen Mikey flipped over to look at the wall, it was so plain and boring.

“Good night,” Pete called out as he got into his own bed.  With Pete in the bed right next to Mikey’s, he had become highly aware of how small the gap between the bunk beds actually was.  If Mikey stuck his arm own he no doubt would’ve been able to touch Pete’s back, and after he thought that Mikey pinned his arms between him and the wall.  Even though this was the safest he had felt in a while, it took Mikey hours to fall asleep that night because his brain wouldn’t stop telling what he had done wrong in last few days.  It made him feel guilty for being in a bed while Gerard was missing.

***

 

_ “Honey,” his mother called out as he passed her open bedroom door.  He knew what was about to happen, and even though he wanted to stop it, he couldn’t.  Instead, he stopped outside of her bedroom door like every other time, and when he tried to open his mouth he couldn’t.  “I just want to say that we’re proud of you, your dad and I. We know how hard things have been for you lately.” _

_ “Whatever,” he responded even though he didn’t want to. _

_ “I mean it,” she said standing up, “we’re so proud of you, and we don’t love you any less.  We’re just happy you’re comfortable with who you are.” _

_ “Stop,” he replied, but not in a coy way.  Instead, it was harsh and aggravated. He felt his feet carry him down the hallway, only to wind back up at his parent’s bedroom door.  This time nobody is inside, just like he knew there wouldn’t be. Turning the doorknob he snuck into the room, and went straight to his father’s side of the bed.  He lifted the mattress and grabbed the little key, holding it like it was a lifeline he turned around and unlocked the shiny black gun cabinet and grabbed a random gun and one bullet.  He could hear the front door open as he closed the door, locked it and rehid the key. Hurrying out of the room he made his way back into the hallway and headed for his room. _

_ “Sweety,” his mother stopped him again, and it looks like she had been crying.  This is the one that hurts the most, and he begs himself to change it. To make things different, to make them better, but he still can’t.  “These past few months I can see the change in you. You seem so different, so hurt.” _

_ “So?”  He questioned almost aggressively. _

_ “I want don’t want you to feel that way,” she tried, “I just want you to feel proud of who you are, to be happy with yourself.” _

_ “Proud of what?”  He crossed his arms over his chest. _

_ “Lots of things,” she said standing up trying to find level ground with him.  Inside his head, he’s shouting at himself to stop being an idiot, to open his eyes and realize what she’s trying to do.  “Especially the small victories. You made it through today. You made it through one more day, and you can make it through tomorrow.  Before you know it you’ll have made it through a week, and then a month, and then an entire year. And you should be proud of that, be proud of making it one more day.  It’s a small victory that counts so much.” _

_ “Are you trying to make me feel guilty?”  He asked stepping backward. _

_ “What?  No, of course not.”  She said reaching out for him, but he stepped out of her reach. _

_ “Fuck you,” he said even though he begged himself not to, “fuck you.” _

_ Just then his father came upstairs, a look of shock on his face. _

_ “Apologize to your mother.” _

_ “No,” he spit, “why should I?  It’s not like either of you really care anyway.  You don’t care about each other, and you don’t care about me, and I hate both of you.”  Lair, he told himself. Because he knew that they loved each other so much and that they loved him, and most of all that he loved them. _

_ “You don’t mean that,” his mom said tears in her eyes. _

_ “I do,” he said “and I don’t want either of you coming to New Jersey for the gig.  And if you come, I’ll never ever talk to either of you again.” But he didn’t plan on it, either way, he thought, as he put his bag in the van.  He didn’t plan on talking to anyone ever again after the gig in Jersey. _

Mikey could hear the sound of a slight whimper next to him just as his eyes were drifting closed.  He looked over his shoulder to see Pete fast asleep, his eyes squeezed tightly shut but a few tears had escaped despite that.

“Hey,” Mikey said leaning over the gap between the beds.  He lightly tapped Pete on the shoulder, “Pete, wake up.” 

Slowly Pete opened his eyes, and before he did anything else he wiped the tears away that decorated his face.  Once he calmed himself down he sat up on the edge of the bed.

“I’m sorry,” Pete said, “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“I-I wasn’t sleeping,” Mikey replied thrown off by the apology.  It seemed odd to have someone apologize for crying, especially in their sleep.

“Oh,” Pete said nodding his head, “why?”

“I don’t know,” Mikey said with a yawn, “I just can’t get mind off of what I could’ve done better.”

“Me too,” Pete said as he thought about the last few days before the apocalypse.  “I could’ve done so much better.”

“One of the happiest moments in your life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change,” Mikey said just barely loud enough for Pete to hear him. “My mom used to say that all the time, and when I’d asked here where she got it from, she said she googled quotes about worrying about the past.  It was one of her favorite things to say. And sure, it sounds very philosophical or whatever, but sometimes it’s easier to be an unhappy coward than it is to let go of what you could’ve done that wouldn’t have put you in the position to be an unhappy coward in the first place.”

“Well,” Pete muttered laying back down, “I guess we’ll both be unhappy cowards for a while longer then.”

“I guess so,” Mikey said.  “Goodnight Pete.”

“Goodnight.”  They turned their backs to each other and fell asleep easily, both hoping to escape the nightmare they were living, only to fall into another.


	7. Chapter 7

Pete could feel the bed move as Patrick climbed down from the top bunk, but he kept his eyes closed because he wasn’t ready to wake up just yet.  Sleeping last night left him even more exhausted than he had been before he had gone to sleep.

“Pete,” Patrick said tapping Pete’s foot, “we have to be at the scouting meeting soon.”  He didn’t say anything else, just slipped his shoes on and left, Andy was right behind him.  After an internal argument of whether the meeting was really important enough to get out of bed for or not, Pete opened his eyes.  He blinked a few times to clear his vision, Mikey coming into view.

The first thing Pete noticed was that Mikey was laying on his back, his right arm stretched out so that it was hanging off the side of the bed, his fingertips only inches away from Pete’s.  Quickly, but careful not to hit Mikey’s hand, Pete pulled his arm back on to his own bed as his eyes took in the unease on Mikey’s face. Just from that alone, Pete knew that Mikey wasn’t faking being asleep this time around.  Pete sighed throwing back the covers wishing he could stay in bed all day but knew that wasn’t an option anymore. As he got dressed quickly he thought back to his conversation with Mikey last night, the words unhappy coward dancing around his mind.  Adjusting his shirt he looked at Mikey and got an idea.

Moving as fast as he could, Pete rushed down the hallway to the office barefoot and thinking about one thing only.  The door was open, and he could hear the Commander's voice carry itself through the doorway. 

“Wentz, how nice of you to join us,” Commander Hoppus said interrupting his own sentence.  Pete looked around and saw his squad and the other top squad in the Commander’s office. Jack, from the other squad, greeted Pete with a nod while Alex, Rian, and Zack ignored him completely.

“I’m sorry Commander,” Pete said, “but can I have a moment with my squad members?”

Commander Hoppus looked at Pete with a look of disdain before giving a curt nod, “Make it quick, Wentz.”

Pete waved to Andy, Joe, and Patrick beckoning them into the hallway.  They all complied, except Joe stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Can we make a scouting proposal?”  Pete asked looking specifically at Patrick.

“Technically yes,” Patrick said, “but we just got back from a scouting mission, and Commander Hoppus was going to ask us to stay here for a while to keep an eye over camp.  I’m pretty sure he was going to ask Alex’s squad to go scout for more medical supplies.”

“This is important though,” Pete insisted looking at Patrick with pleading eyes.

“What is it?” Andy asked intrigued.

“We need to help Mikey find his brother,” Pete said meeting each set of eyes the best he could.  “If we do that he might come back here, and they’ll both be safe.”

“Commander Hoppus will never approve of that,” Patrick told Pete shaking his head.

“We can at least try,” Pete tried.

“Not today,” Patrick said, “we failed our last scouting mission, Pete, there’s no way he’s going to let us do that.”

“Come on Trick,” Pete said using the old nickname he hadn’t used in a while.

“Not today,” Patrick repeated, “he’s pissed at us, especially you, so don’t bring it up.  It won’t get approved if you do.”

“You’re not even supposed to talk during these meeting unless you’re spoken to,” Joe said snidely turning his back on Pete and going back into the office.

“Patrick-”

“No, I’m sorry, I’m just trying to tell you the truth.” Patrick and Andy went back into the room, but Pete didn’t.  Instead, he turned and went back to the room he shared with the other three, only to see that Mikey wasn’t there anymore.

 

***

 

He had no idea where he was going, all he knew was that he was trying to find Frank.  The camp wasn’t that big, but it was still pretty large considering. As he walked around he noticed how happy everyone was to be here, like they had no idea that a zombie apocalypse was going on just outside their pathetic chain link fence.  The same fence that they put way too much faith into protecting them. Sure their guards with guns would help a little if a horde decided to swarm, but that didn’t mean much if multiple hordes came their way. It was all just a matter of time, really.

Weaving in and out of tents Mikey kept an eye out for Frank and Sweet Pea, or at the very least little dog prints.  Passing one tent he heard the sound of a dog barking and turned to look in that direction, and there was that tiny graying pup along with Frank.  He was sitting with his back to the fence only about a foot away from it as he tossed a tiny twig for Sweet Pea. Mikey could see that Frank was sulking and felt extremely guilty knowing that he was at fault for that.  Not being all that great at expressing his emotions Mikey didn’t know how to approach Frank to try to make things better. An apology would work, he knew that, but it somehow felt embarrassing to have to apologize to Frank.  It was admitting he had messed up, and he really didn’t want to. 

“There you are,” Mikey heard Pete say.

“Yep, here I am,” he replied still watching as Frank halfheartedly tossing the pathetic twig.  

“You know,” Pete started, “I think it’s usually best to say I’m sorry in situations like this.”

“Well duh,” Mikey said looking over at Pete with his arms crossed over his chest.

“So what are you waiting for?” Pete asked with his eyebrows raised.

“I’ve never apologized to Frank before,” Mikey answered as if the answer was obvious.  “I don’t know what to say, or how to keep it from it getting weird.”

“How about a sincere I’m sorry,” Pete offered up with a shrug.  Mikey narrowed his eyes at Pete, before moving towards Frank. “Oh thanks, Pete for the advice,” Pete murmured to himself.

“It wasn’t really advice,” Mikey called over his shoulder while shaking his head.  Pete couldn’t see it with Mikey’s back to him, but Mikey’s lips twitched with a tiny, fleeting smile.  He didn’t let it last long, and when Frank finally saw Mikey heading his way that small moment was long forgotten.  Frank stood up quickly and watched Mikey close the distance carefully. Mikey’s eyes took in the bruise that had started to form on Frank’s cheekbone and felt a small source of pride, Frank was usually the one leaving behind injuries never once getting hurt himself, but Mikey had changed that.  

“Come back to hit me again?”  Frank asked Mikey in a tone that Mikey couldn’t quite place.  It sounded like he was teasing Mikey, but it also soundly like he was partly pissed.  Whatever the tone was made Mikey defensive.

“Maybe,” Mikey answered, “it was a lot of fun.”

“For you,” Frank said shaking his head.

“I just said that,” Mikey shot back narrowing his eyes a Frank.  The two fell into uneasy silence until Sweet Pea yipped for Frank’s attention.  As he bent down to get the stick out of Sweet Pea’s mouth, Mikey looked over his shoulder to see Pete watching him and Frank.  Unlike a normal person Pete didn’t seem ashamed to have been caught spying on Mikey, instead, he gave Mikey two giant thumbs up and mouthed  _ I’m sorry _ before placing his hands over his heart.  Mikey shook his head and rolled his eyes before turning back towards his face.

“I see your bodyguard is keeping watch,” Frank said tossing the stick for Sweet Pea.

“He’s not...it doesn’t matter,” Mikey started to rub the back of his neck.  “Look, Frank, I’m sorry about yesterday, things are just...well I don’t know what word to use.”

“Apocalyptic?” Frank suggested which caused a small upturn of the side of Mikey’s lips.

“Apocalyptic works,” Mikey said with a shrug of his shoulders.  “Are we good?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Frank replied with a smile.  “We have to be if we’re going to find Gerard together.”

“Really?” Mikey asked a smile breaking out across his face.  Frank could see a hint of life coming back to his eyes.

“Of course, in what world wouldn’t I help you find Gerard?” Frank asked sounding slightly offended.

“Well, yesterday you-”

“You were being a hard-headed child and didn’t give me a chance to speak.” Frank interrupted while raising his eyebrows.

“I’ll hit you again Iero,” Mikey warned, “because I’m not a kid anymore.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Frank said with a smirk, “Hey since you’re not a kid anymore does that mean you're going to tell Gerard about that night?”

Mikey’s face went pink instantly.  Embarrassment coursed through Mikey’s veins as he took a step backward.  Memories from his seventeenth birthday came rushing back to him, and the more that he remembered the more embarrassed he got.  His seventeenth birthday was unlike any other birthday he had celebrated, and it was one he would never forget.

“I’ve got to go,” Mikey answered, “I have to report back to that weird guy.”  Mikey refused to wait for a reply as he turned on his heal and made his way back to where he came from.  When he got closer to Pete he ducked his head and covered his face to hide the blush that wouldn’t go away.  

“How’d it go?” Pete asked curiously falling into step beside Mikey.

“Fine,” Mikey hissed trying to shake Pete.

“What are you doing?”

“Walking,” Mikey said snidely, “can you just leave me alone?”

“Well actually I needed to talk to you,” Pete said placing a hand on Mikey’s shoulder and pulling him to a stop.  Surprised Mikey’s hands dropped from his face and he straightened up his blush on display for Pete. The blush took Pete by surprise.  Something about the blush made Pete want to smile, it was adorable and looked like something Mikey wasn’t exactly used to.

“Stop,” Mikey said covering his face again, “say what you need to say and let me go.”

“Why are you blushing?” Pete asked ignoring Mikey altogether.

“It’s none of your business,” Mikey told Pete taking a step.

“Come on Mikey what’s with the blush?” Pete poked Mikey’s shoulder with a curious smile.  Mikey took another step back, and Pete just followed. “I’ll stop annoying you if you tell me.”

“Okay, fine, Frank brought up some embarrassing memories.  That’s all you’re going to get.”

“Is he blackmailing you?” Pete asked his mouth falling open in shock.

“What?  No, why would he do that?” Mikey shot back, his blush fading.

“Well, you did punch him yesterday,” Pete suggested with a shrug.  “What were these memories exactly?”

“You promised to stop annoying me, and I’m feeling annoyed.” Mikey responded, “Plus I thought you had to talk to me about something.”

“Oh, right,” Pete said, “I want to help you find your brother.”

“Why?” Mikey asked crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, it would be under the condition that you and him came back here afterward.”

“Again, why?” Mikey asked slightly standoffish and confused.  

“So you’ll be safe,” Pete answered.

“Okay, but why are you so obsessed with my safety?  We just met.” Mikey answered.

“Oh, well I want to help as many people as I can.” Pete answered thrown off by how many ‘why’ questions Mikey was throwing his way, especially since he was offering Mikey his help.

“I’m going to pass,” Mikey said as his stomach started a long growl of huger.  Mikey looked around and found the building where he could get food.

“Wait, you pass?” Pete asked following Mikey as he made his way towards the mess hall.  Pete couldn’t help but wonder what was going on inside Mikey’s head. If someone had offered to help Pete find someone he was desperately searching for, there was no way he’d just calmly and nonchalantly say  _ I’m going to pass _ .  Or at least apocalypse Pete wouldn’t, not after what he had gone through.  “Why would you pass?”

“Because the cost of coming back here isn’t worth it.” Mikey answered, “Because with or without your help I’ll find my brother.  And the latter doesn’t condemn my brother and I to a zombie magnet hellhole.”

“What are you talking about?” Pete asked slightly offended but also concerned.

“This place, this camp, is a death trap,” Mikey replied as though the answer was sitting right in front of Pete on a silver platter.  He offered no explanation as he stepped into the mess hall, his stomach growling again when the smell of something sweet filled his nostrils.  The scent was vaguely familiar, but still out of Mikey’s grasp. “That smells fucking amazing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Whatever the hell they’re serving for breakfast,”  Mikey said rounding the corner to see people eating cinnamon rolls.

“Not the smell, the death trap,” Pete said grabbing Mikey’s hand just as he was about to grab a plate.  He dropped Mikey’s hand instantly but took a step closer to him.

“Forget I said anything, I’m just a pessimist.”  Mikey reached for a plate again, but Pete grabbed his wrist.  He didn’t let Mikey’s hand go right away, instead, he held it in place.  Mikey looked at Pete with a bored expression.

“These are my people,” Pete started his voice even and far more serious than Mikey was used to.  “I have no blood relatives left, all I have left is this family that I’ve made here in this camp.  I’ve fucked up a lot before this apocalypse happened, and hurt the people I cared about, so I’m not going to sit around and wait for this family to get fucked over.  Now I get that you’re a lone wolf or whatever, but I like to have a pack. So if you know something that will help me protect my pack, then you better tell me.”

“Lay off,” Mikey said as he withdrew his wrist from Pete’s grasp.  “I’m not saying a single thing to you, Wolfie, until I eat.” Mikey reached out for a plate again, this time Pete didn’t stop him.  Instead, Pete grabbed a plate of his own. Mikey’s eyes widened as he grabbed a cinnamon bun, an apple, and someone passed him a cup of clean water.  His body was shaking as it realized just how much nutrition it was lacking.

Pete watched as Mikey’s hand shook as it reached out for the cup of water.  The contents were threatening to spill out onto the floor if his hand didn’t steady soon.  Even though he was angry at this moment he couldn’t take his eyes off of Mikey. There was something about the way he moved that was juxtaposed to his personality.  His personality was like the beginning of a storm, seemingly calm, but ready to rage on if needed; fierce but steady. The way he held himself was different. It was like he was the sun, except the clouds were shielding him and he felt no need to fight back.  He seemed meek; like he needed to be protected, but that wasn’t really the case. The way the two opposed each other was alluring. Even as Mikey picked a secluded table in the back of the mess hall his steps were surprisingly close together for someone with long legs, and he seemed to try to disappear into his surroundings, to go unnoticed by anyone and everyone.  But it didn’t work, because Pete saw him. So did the blonde teenage girl, and the young boy holding an apple like a baseball, and the fraternal twins who were busy playing a game of rock, paper, scissors. The reality of all was that everyone seemed to see Mikey, but he didn’t see any of them, so when he turned towards Pete and pointed to the seat at the table Pete felt kind of special.

“Are you okay, you have this funny look on your face?” Mikey asked sitting down at the table.

“I’m fine,” Pete replied taking the seat across from Mikey.

“How the hell do you have cinnamon buns?” Mikey asked, tentatively picking the cinnamon bun up from his plate.  From the look in Mikey’s eyes, Pete thought that he would eat the damn thing like a ravenous beast, but instead, Mikey gently pulled it apart into tiny pieces which he let melt in his mouth.

“We’ve saved a lot of stuff up, and we go on a lot of scouting missions,”  Pete said taking a bit out of his apple. “Now, tell me what your issue is with my camp.”

Mikey sighed and put his cinnamon bun back down on his plate.  “I just don’t trust camps like this okay?”

“No, there’s more to it, I can tell.” Pete persisted, he wasn’t going to let Mikey walk all over him when it came to this.

“Listen, I’ve just had bad experiences with these place in the past.”

“What bad experiences?” Pete asked raising his eyebrows.

“Cults, gangs, racism, homophobia, shit people found important before the apocalypse, but aren’t anymore.”  Pete started to nod his head when he realized there was still more that Mikey was keeping from him, something dark.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Pete said swiping Mikey’s plate from him just as he was about to rip another piece off of his cinnamon bun.  When Mikey looked unimpressed with Pete’s task Pete ripped off a piece and ate it.

“Fuck you dude,” Mikey hissed and his stomach growled along in support.

“Fuck you,” Pete countered.  “Please, I feel like you owe it to me to tell me what you’re not.”

“Fine,” Mikey sighed, “you’re not going to like what you hear.”

“I’m okay with that.”

“Camps like these are nothing more than glorified cattle farms,” Mikey said.

“Well technically it’s called a ranch, not a farm,” Pete retorted because he got the feeling he knew where this was going, and even though he said he was okay with whatever Mikey had to say, he really wasn’t.  He was far from okay, and actually kind of afraid.

“Really?” Mikey asked astounded.

“Yeah, farms are for crops, ranches are…”

“I meant that’s  _ really _ what you’re focusing on,” Mikey shook his head like he saw Pete as the biggest idiot on the planet.

“Apparently.”

“I told you, you wouldn’t like what I had to tell you,” Mikey responded ready to disregard the conversation.

“Like it or not, I need to know,” Pete said calmly even though that what he wasn’t feeling so calm, “go on.”

“We’ve stayed at like three of these camps before, and everytime a zombie horde showed up and not many people survived.”

“How did you survive?” Pete asked feeling a little sick to his stomach.

“We knew what it was like outside, people in these camps go soft.  They forget what it’s really like out there because they lock themselves up and start to believe some delusion that everything is fine.  Sitting around here is a deathwish.”

“That’s not true,” Pete said in desperation while shaking his head.

“It is,” Mikey said unable to look Pete in the eye now.

“The Last of the Real Ones is different.”

“They all are,” Mikey sighed, “but they all end the same: A bloody, painful, infected mess.  Zombies may be stupid, but they’re evolving. They’re becoming better hunters, faster predators, and in general hungrier.  Their food supply is shrinking and they’re getting desperate. Hordes are getting bigger, faster, stronger, smarter. They can smell these camps and they love to destroy them.”

“We have guards, if a horde comes we’ll take care of them.”

“You don’t think the other camps didn’t think the same thing?”

“Our fence will hold them out.”

“Zombies are stopped by chain-link fences, they find ways in.”

“We haven’t seen a zombie nearby since this camp was established.”

“They’ll show up, they always do.”  Mikey looked back at Pete and instantly regretted it.  The look Pete was sporting made Mikey’s stomach twist in a knot.  “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Pete shook his head but didn’t say anything.  He was at a complete loss of words because he didn’t even know what to do with what Mikey had just told him.  Did he tell someone, did he warn everyone and suggest mandatory training? But supplies really was really running low, they couldn’t waste it on training.  Maybe they could modify their fence, but the chainlink made easy to see any incoming threats. What were they supposed to do if they couldn’t even see what was coming their way?  There was no solution Pete could see, but he felt like Commander Hoppus should know.

“You okay?” Mikey asked.

“C’mon,” Pete said ignoring Mikey’s question, “we have to go.”

“What? Why?” Mikey asked as his stomach growled, “What about my cinnamon bun?”

“Here,” Pete said returning Mikey’s breakfast and even giving Mikey his own cinnamon bun.  “Eat them while we walk.”

Mikey stood up with Pete and followed his lead stuffing his apple into his pocket and carrying his cinnamon buns.  “Where are we going?”

“To talk to Commander Hoppus.”

“Who?”

“The Commander of the scouting squads, he runs all of the security here.”  Pete grabbed Mikey’s wrist, the one that wasn’t attached to the hand holding his breakfast, and pulled him faster.  Even though it wasn’t really the time to notice how Pete held on to Mikey’s wrist gently and frim like he was the most important thing in the world, Mikey couldn’t help but notice.  He was actually starting to notice that Pete had been treating like the most important thing in the world since they first met. On top of that, Pete’s hand was callused but by apocalypse standards, it was considerably soft.  But there was something else Mikey noticed, while he was on a streak of noticing things when he really shouldn’t be, the pads of his fingers were callused in a way that Mikey was familiar with, he had calluses like that of his own.

“Do you play bass or something?” Mikey asked as Pete continued to drag him along.  Mikey could see it in Pete’s face before he even answered.

“I did, before all of this,” Pete answered with that familiar glimmer of nostalgia and the added darkness of pain in his coffee bean eyes.  His grip on Mikey’s wrist tightened only slightly for a fraction of a second before it went back to that delicate grip. “How did you know?”  Pete pulled Mikey into that building they spent the night last night.

“I have the same calluses on my fingers,” Mikey answered.  Without thinking he turned his hand so that he could grip Pete’s wrist too as if to prove that he wasn’t lying about them.  The action shocked Pete and came to a halting stop. “What?”

“Keep touching me like that and I might have to kiss you,” Pete said with a grin.

“I-what?” Mikey asked his face burning.

Pete didn’t answer, instead, he started to pull Mikey again.  The hallway was windowless, and the air was kind of stale and made Mikey’s eyes water a little.  Every room they passed was exactly like the one Mikey had spent the night before in, except they seemed to have more people in each room.  While the walls were white there were suspicious red splatters on them that made Mikey think that something violent had happened in this very hallway, and if it wasn’t so dark he was sure the floor would have matching red splatters on it.  Mikey couldn’t help but notice all these things, it was like Pete’s grip was giving him clarity, or maybe it was just that he was missing some connection to the world and Pete had given it back to him. And there was one more thing he noticed, he was still holding onto Pete’s wrist.

“Commander Hoppus!” Pete called out bursting into a room that was set up as an office rather than sleeping quarters.

“Wentz what do you think you’re doing?” An unfamiliar man asked angrily.

“Sir, I have some dire information that I need to share with you,”  Pete said straightening up.

“I’m in the middle of a meeting, one that you ran out on.”  The man, who Mikey had decided was Commander Hoppus, said unimpressed.  “And get this kid out of here, this is classified.”

“I’m not a kid,” Mikey interjected.

“The more you say that the more you sound like a child,” Joe spoke up highly amused with his own comment.  Mikey ignored him.

“Trohman,” Commander Hoppus barked, “you know this kid?”

“Yes, sir,” Joe said stepping forward a little.  “He is the one we mentioned in the debriefing early.”

“The famous rumored hostage?”  Someone else Mikey didn’t recognize asked excitedly looking at Mikey like he was the eighth wonder of the world.

“Barakat, not now,” Commander Hoppus said bored.  The guy standing next to Barakat elbowed him and flashed a look of annoyance.

“Commander, please, Mikey has shared some interesting information that regards the security of our camp.”  Pete tried again with an almost desperate plea in his voice.

“What does this kid know about security?”

“Well I know chain link doesn’t actually keep zombies out, and I know for a fact that this camp is doomed.”  Mikey answered with a shrug before adding, “And I’m not a kid.”

“Fine, everyone is dismissed besides you two,” Commander Hoppus said pointing to Pete and Mikey, “but stay close because this meeting isn’t over yet.”

The room cleared rather quickly, almost as if everyone couldn’t wait to leave.  As the others left nobody acknowledged Pete and Mikey until Patrick passed them.  He patted Pete on the shoulder in a sign of solidarity, and gave Mikey a knowing nod and as he left he closed the door behind him.

“Who are you?” The Commander demanded.

“My name is Mikey Way,” Mikey said, not sure how else to answer his question.

“Why are you here?”

“This one forced me,” he gestured to Pete with a nod of his head.

“What’s your goal here?”

“To leave as soon as I can and find my brother.”

“What do you know?”

“Not much really except what I’ve been through.  People get too comfortable behind these feeble fences, ones that don’t really protect anyone, and they wind up dead because of it.  Zombie hordes are growing bigger and becoming better predators. They find these camps easily and have no problem dismantling them in seconds.”

“Do you have a solution?” Commander Hoppus asked.

“No, I thought that was your thing,” Mikey said like he thought Commander Hoppus was an absolute idiot.

Before Mikey knew what was happening the Commander lunged at him, and he thought for sure he’d choke him out.  But Pete was suddenly between them with an uncharacteristically menacing look on his face.

“Get out of my office you fucking wise ass.”  Commander Hoppus shouted with spit flying from his lips.  Pete started to push Mikey towards the door, reaching around him to open it.  When they were in the hallway Pete slammed the door behind them.

“You alright?” Pete asked Mikey.

“I’m fine,” Mikey answered truthfully.

And he noticed one more thing: they were still holding onto each other but Pete’s grip was a little tighter like he was really shaken but what had just happened.  


	8. Chapter 8

“He’s not usually like that,” Pete said suddenly, as if this information was so extremely vital that it couldn’t wait to be shared.  “He’s actually a pretty cool guy, there’s just been a lot going on lately.”

“Oh yeah?” Mikey said with a smirk, and Pete could see the smartass comment coming before it was even spoken.  “I hadn’t noticed, it’s not like the actual zombie apocalypse is unfolding outside that fence.”

“You’re a wiseass you know that?” Pete asked shaking his head.

“No, actually I hadn’t noticed,” Mikey replied with another smirk.  In the silence of the empty hallway, Mikey became very aware of Pete's fingers around his wrist and his own around Pete’s.  For some reason, it made him nervous, and he could feel his palm start to sweat. After everything he had gone through, killing zombies, running from insane humans, losing his brother, having to kill Ray after he had already died, and seeing Bob again, nothing should make him nervous so easily, but holding onto Pete and Pete holding onto him, he felt extremely nervous.  And despite this, he couldn’t get himself to let go. As nervous as it made him, it also comforted him in some way.

“Hey, Pete!” All of the sudden Mikey had no choice to let go because Pete dropped his arms so fast that his arm slipped out of Mikey’s hand with the momentum.  It was that guy, Barakat, that called out to Pete, but he wasn’t alone. His entire squad was with him.

“Hey Jack,” Pete answered shaking his head as if he was clearing it.

“Mikey, right?” the guy who Mikey assumed was the squad leader, offered Mikey his hand.  Quickly, and hopefully unnoticeably, Mikey wiped his hand on his pants and shook.

“Yeah, and you’re?”

“Alex Gaskarth, I’m the leader of the A-Squad.” But he didn’t seem serious when he said this, he flicked his eyes to Pete and wore a slight smirk.

“A-Squad?” Pete chuckled, “Who decided that?”

“Commander Hoppus of course,” Jack chimed in with a smirk of his own.

“Really, because I overheard him saying A Squad stands for the Asshat Squad.”  Alex and Jack shared a glance at Pete’s response and it was very clearly an unimpressed one.

“Is that really the best you could come up with?”  Jack teased.

“Oh shut up,” Pete retorted.  For a moment the banter stopped and everything fell under silence.  Mikey’s heart was racing in his chest, why had he held onto Pete for so long and why did he feel disappointed when Pete let go?

“Tough break with Commander Hoppus,” one of the members Mikey hadn’t been introduced to yet finally spoke up.  Out of the four, he looked like the one who would get out of this thing alive. He wasn’t lanky like Alex and Jack, but rather toned, like he had spent his entire life working out.  Despite the apocalypse, he still wore a nose ring, which Mikey found slightly odd because even Frank seemed to ditch his lip ring.

“I think he hates me,” Pete said nonchalantly.

“Daddy Hoppus?  Hate you?” Jack scoffed as if it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard.  But Mikey was sure that Pete had said far dumber things in Jack’s presence than this because Mikey knew for sure that Pete had said dumber things in his presence in the very little time they had known each other.  

“Really Jack,” the nose ring one said hitting Jack’s shoulder.

“What?” Jack asked with a mock whine as he rubbed the spot where he had been hit.

“You have to call him daddy Hoppus?” The fourth and final member of the squad said, but unlike nose ring, he sounded amused.  It was like he was playing along to appease nose ring. Although it really didn’t seem to work, because nose ring turned his attention from the conversation and to Mikey instead.  

“I’m Zack, and this,” he points to the fourth squad member, “is Rian.  We’re one of the three squads at this camp.”

“I’m Mikey,” Mikey said even though he was sure that everyone in camp knew who he was at this point, “infamous hostage at this squad.”  The five guys around Mikey stifled chuckles.

“Well, it was nice meeting you,” Alex sighed, “but the guys and I have to head out now, we’ve got a deadline.”

“Stay safe,” Pete said moving out of their way to let them pass.  Mikey watched as the four of them walked past him and Pete. Their voices and laughter filled the open silence as they left.  Jack turned fast and made a move to punch Rian below the belt, but Rian easily sidestepped making Jack fall onto the floor. Everyone laughed but kept walking, Zack going as far as stepping over Jack.  Watching them fool around Mikey felt a twinge in his stomach. These guys were about Mikey’s age, just a little younger, and if the world was normal they’d probably only be about two years out of high school. But instead of going to college, or following their dreams they were going out into chaos to find whatever they could to help a camp full of people survive the actual zombie apocalypse.  And yet watching the four of them leave, it looked like just a group of teenage boys going off to hang out until their parents cried curfew.

“You alright?” Pete asked Mikey placing his hand on Mikey’s shoulder.

“Fuck, no, of course, I’m not,” Mikey pushed Pete off of him and barged back into the Commander’s office.  Commander Hoppus hardly blinked at the door slamming open, but stiffened up when he saw that it was Mikey. His mouth opened, but Mikey didn’t give his words a chance to escape.  “Fucking save them! Don’t hide behind this goddamn useless door pretending like sending young men out into zombie infested lands to find supplies will actually keep everyone here alive!  They’re depending on you to keep them safe, but all you’re doing is buying them time. I can’t tell you how to do it, because I don’t know how, and nobody is depending on me to figure it out.  It’s on you, so figure it, the fuck, out so these people who look to you for safety don’t fucking die on your watch.”

“What a beautiful speech,” Commander Hoppus spat sarcastically, “but it doesn’t help any.”

“Yes it does,” Mikey said shaking his head, “it’s supposed to make you realize what’s at stake, and if it doesn’t you need to find someone else who actually gives a shit.”

Commander Hoppus tilted his head a little and looked at Mikey.  It felt like some kind of test to Mikey, so he lifted his chin and stared right back at Commander Hoppus.  He expected something, some kind of response, but instead, Commander Hoppus fell back into his chair and let out all the air his lungs were holding.  And Mikey finally saw this man for who he truly is: someone who was forced into a position he wasn’t capable of holding but was trying his hardest to do what had to be done.

“Start with the fence, and whoever you have guarding the fence,” Mikey said, “then maybe think about training everyone in camp so that if something does happen they’re not defenseless.”

“Yeah, okay,” Commander Hoppus nodded, “close the door behind you.”

 

***

 

“I’m bored,” Mikey said laying down in Joe’s bed.  Pete was sitting on the bed across from him, looking as bored as Mikey felt.  A few days ago Mikey would’ve given anything to have a moment like this: relaxing in bed without feeling like the world was crashing down around him.  Well, it still felt like the world was crashing down around him, especially since he still had no idea if Gerard was okay or not, but he knew that he had to leave when nobody was watching.  Not only did he have to leave when no one was watching he had to get all of his stuff back before he left. Frank may have promised to help Mikey, but in all honesty, Mikey didn’t want Frank’s help because the more he thought about it the more of a risk Frank was than an asset.  He didn’t know how he could make this work, but he did know that he needed to find Gerard soon.

“Enjoy it,” Pete yawned, “boredom is nice every once in a while.”

“I disagree,” Mikey turned his head to look at Pete, “it just gives me time to think.”

“Yeah,” Pete sighed, “you’ve got a point.”

The two boys fell into silence, and it made them both uneasy.  Finally, Mikey sat up, and with the narrow space between the beds, his knees were right against Pete’s.

“Tell me about you before,” Mikey said.

“I’d rather not,” Pete answered, “That Pete sucks.”

“Okay,” Mikey nodded, “gotcha.”  They fell back into silence. Pete tapped his knee with his fingers, and every now and then his finger would brush against Mikey’s leg, and Mikey didn’t actually care.  In fact, it was like the beat of a song, it became something he could time and predict. He knew when Pete’s fingertips would lightly tap his knee and when they would stay on Pete’s own body.  It was almost mesmerizing.

“I was in a band,” Pete said almost like he actually hadn’t meant to.

“Me too,” Mikey said watching Pete’s fingers dance.  “With my brother, and his boyfriend, Frank, and his best friend, Ray, and for a while a fucking asshole named Bob.”

“Sounds like quite a band,” Pete says with a smile.  “My band is my squad.”

“No shit,” Mikey said looking up in surprise, “at least one of us made it out with our bands intact.  Imagine how much money you’ll make when this thing is over and people want music more than ever.”

“I wouldn’t count on that, Joe hates me.” Pete sighed, “I promised him that if this ends, and we’re both still alive, and nothing has changed he can kill me.  He didn’t seem to hate the idea.”

Mikey inhaled sharply and nodded his head.  He didn’t know what to say, or how to even handle what Pete had just told him, or how to understand how Pete had told him so calmly.  It was like Pete didn’t even care that is bandmate wanted him dead.

“I don’t blame him,” Pete shrugged and his fingers stopped tapping, the tips falling still on Mikey’s knees.  “I killed his parents on Break Out Day.”

Mikey didn’t say anything, because there was nothing to say.

“We’re all from Chicago,” Pete said inhaling deeply before looking Mikey in the eye.  “And our band wasn’t big at all, we didn’t even pick our own band name, some guy at our second gig called out Fallout Boy…”

“Like the Simpsons character?”  Mikey asked as Pete’s fingers started tapping a real beat, one Mikey recognized but couldn’t quite place.

“Yeah, but we put a space between fall and out,” Pete smiled at Mikey for a moment, “and with a band name, I got a little carried away because having a band name made it feel real.  Like we were paving a path for ourselves, one that nobody could deny or take away so I booked us a few of gigs outside of Chicago over the course of a year, one in Ohio, one in Pennsylvania, one in Georgia, one in New York and one in New Jersey.  We only ever made it to the first two, and the sound check for the third one.”

“Jersey?” Mikey asked just to let Pete know that he was listening.

“Jersey,” Pete confirmed, “and Joe’s parents were the chaperones this time around.  Patrick and Andy’s parents were going to meet us there for the show, but then shit happened.”

“What about your parents?  Not a fan of their son pursuing music as a career?”

“No,” Pete broke his eye contact and looked at the ceiling, “out of all of our parents, mine were the ones that believed in us the most.  Even though our band was finally coming together, I started falling apart and I took my parents down with me. The night we left I told them I hate them and that if they came to the show that I wouldn’t talk to them ever again like I was a thirteen-year-old whose parents wouldn’t buy him a fucking video game.  It was stupid, and I don’t even know why I said all of that to them.”

Pete’s eyes trained in on a black dot on the ceiling, he had found it there on his first night in the barracks, and when he couldn’t fall asleep he would climb out of bed and lay on the floor to stare at it.  It somehow absorbed his thoughts like a black hole in the universe. Only this universe was colorless and finite, he could see where it began and where it ended and maybe that’s why it was so calming. There was no question about how it came to be or how it would end, it was right there up above him, no answers needed because they were right there.  And he could feel himself being pulled into that black hole, he fixated on it long enough for gravity to let go of him so the black hole could pull him up.

Until Mikey pulled him back down.

Pete hadn’t realized that he had been tapping the beat of Mr. Brightside on his leg until he stopped and Mikey picked the beat up on Pete’s knee, the tips of Mikey’s dancing fingers brushing up against Pete’s still ones.  And for the first time in a while, Pete felt like talking about who he was before this all started, and he wasn’t sure why. But if he ever had a chance of doing that he would have to talk about Break Out Day first.

“We were riding the high of the first two shows so we didn’t even stop at the hotel after driving for about thirteen hours, we went straight to the venue because he couldn’t wait to see it.”  Pete bit the inside of his lip to remind himself that he wasn’t in the past anymore, but here now, not that, that was much better. “The owner was nice enough to let us hang out for a bit, and Joe’s parents were tired but they stayed anyway to hammer out a few last minute details.  The guys and I were planning out the way we’d move around on stage and which songs we were going to perform off of the album we were trying to put together, even though we already knew the lineup. When Joe’s parents came back in we all thought that they were going to tell us we had to get to the hotel because we needed to rest up for our gig later that night.  But it wasn’t them, it was these two guys that we thought, at first glance, were completely high out of their minds. They were dirty, and stumbling around like they couldn’t see straight, and they were muttering but it wasn’t actual words, it was just grunting. And then suddenly Joe’s parents were screaming at us to run, and those things turned on them and latched on.  None of it made sense, and Joe wasn’t about to leave his parents, and there was no way the three of us could leave Joe. We’re brothers, well we _were_ brothers.  Anyway, the venue owner came in and knocked off the two bastards that went after Joe’s parents and started cheering about how he was right, and that all the people that told him he was crazy for believing a zombie apocalypse would happen weren’t welcome in his bunker.

“We were still so confused, and it seemed like two junkies just attacked Joe’s parents and our host for the night had killed them.  The four of us made a silent decision to get Joe’s parents, get in our van and just go. It wasn’t like we sold tickets that we’d have to refund and there was a policy in our contract that if any extenuating circumstances came up we could back out, without consequence and it seemed like a pretty damn extenuating circumstance.  Patrick distracted the guy as Joe, Andy and I got Joe’s parents to the van. Once Patrick was in Andy, who had somehow got in the driver’s seat started driving. We were only driving for about three minutes when we realized things were off, and only another two before Joe’s parents woke up. Joe tried to get through to them but he just couldn’t, and that’s when his mother went after him and his father after Patrick.  The commotion caused Andy to crash,” Pete sucked in a breath, “the crash wasn’t bad, but it got us all out of the car. I was a little dazed from the shock, but with everything that was happening around us, I started to accept the zombie apocalypse. People were feasting on people like they had never tasted anything sweeter. And there was something about the way Joe’s parents were lying on the pavement, with their bones at odd angles, and the way they just got back up.  And the way that Joe was laying pretty still on the ground, and the way his parents were limping his way with this look in their eyes that made it look like Joe was their dessert. So I did what I had to do. I went back into the van and grabbed the gun I had packed, I hadn’t shot one before so I got as close as I could, which gave Joe enough time to open his eyes to see me shoot both of his parents in the head. He didn’t say much, neither did Andy or Patrick but we got our stuff and ran off.”

Mikey finally understood Joe’s disdain towards Pete, and the way Pete just kind of rolled over and took it.  One was feeling anger and the other guilt, but both of them were very clearly in denial of how, in the end, Joe’s parents dying that day was better than them stumbling around as aimless monsters.  But there was one thing Mikey didn’t understand: why Pete had a gun in the first place. Instead of asking, Mikey stopped keeping the beat and grabbed Pete’s hand and squeezed.

“The black spot on the ceiling is kind of random,” Mikey said after a pregnant silence, “but it’s kind of cool.”

“Yeah, for sure,” Pete squeezed back and they both stared up at the black hole on the ceiling.

 

***

 

Mikey wasn’t sure where the day had gone, but he spent it all with Pete.  When they stepped outside to go hunt down some dinner the wind was blowing the trees so viciously it looked as if they would come crashing down, and the clouds doused the sky in dark gray smears.  It was like the zombie apocalypse had inspired mother nature, and it left his skin decorated with goosebumps. There was something in the air, something more than the normal scent of rot and decay that had come with the apocalypse, something that wasn’t normal.

It was a captivating feeling, one that caused Mikey to let Pete’s voice get carried away by the wind.  He was on edge, so close to the edge in fact that one breath would cause him to fall right over. And looking around it was clear that he was the only one.  He wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt all wrong. Before he knew it he was tripping over his own feet as he ran toward the fence, because in the distance he could see two figures moving fast towards the fence from the outside.  They were waving their arms, and their voices were breaking through the wind, but Mikey still couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. And of course, there was Pete, who was right on his heels calling after him, loud enough for Mikey to hear, but not loud enough to draw attention.  

Mikey collided with the fence at the same time that the two figures did.  There was wild fear in their eyes, and their faces were covered in dirt and what looked like blood.  Even though the three of them were face to face their words still weren’t breaching Mikey’s ears, he was too busy checking for bites, but he saw none.

“Please, help us, please,” finally their words broke through, snapping Mikey back into focus.  

“They’re going to kill us,” the one with a fresh buzzcut said while the other one checked over his shoulder.

“Who?  Zombies?”  Mikey asked reaching into the waistband of his pants instinctively, except he forgot that there was nothing there.  This camp had locked him and took away his defenses.

“No,” the one with the disheveled hair that stuck out everywhere said while shaking his head vigorously.

“The Niners, they’re going to find us and kill us,” there were tears in the one with buzzcut eyes.  Mikey knew exactly who these boys were talking about, and he understood the seriousness of the situation, but he wasn’t so quick to trust them.  For all, he knew he could be seeds that the Niners had sent to plant in this camp to grow weeds that would bring this place of harmony down.

“Mikey!” Pete called out grabbing Mikey by the shoulder and pulling back from the fence.  He eyed the two boys with caution, and Mikey wondered if Pete was looking for bites like he had, or if Pete still had enough humanity left in him to see two boys in distress rather than two possible threats.  “What’s going on,” Pete asked, there was no caution in his voice only true concern.

“They’re after us,” they both said at the same time.

“Please, they’ll kill us,” the crazy hair one said.

“Who?” Pete asked, squeezing Mikey’s shoulder a little.  Mikey could tell that their earlier conversation about zombie attacks had put Pete on edge.

“The Niners!” Buzzcut cried out in frustration and fear.  “We escaped, and we’ve been running for days. Please help us, Nico won’t stop until we’re dead.”

“Pete,” Mikey whispered under his breath, “I don’t know if we can trust these two.”

“What are you talking about,” Pete asked turning himself and Mikey a little for a small amount of privacy.

“I know Nico and the Niners,” Mikey said looking back at the two terrified-looking boys, “they’re no good, and there’s no saying that this isn’t some ploy that Nico set up to ruin this camp.”

“Mikey they’re terrified, we have to help them,” Pete said with a look of horror on his face.

“They could be faking,” Mikey insisted, “you said you want to keep this camp safe, didn’t you?”

Pete looked at Mikey, and then at the two boys who were taking turns keeping an eye on the direction they had come from.  There was so much confliction on his face, and Mikey realized that Pete couldn’t make this decision. He didn’t have it in him to turn these boys away, but he didn’t have it in him to completely disregard Mikey’s caution.  Mikey wasn’t sure when it happened but Pete had started to trust him like they had been friends for all their lives.

“Okay,” Mikey sighed, “I think I have an idea.”

Pete looked at Mikey with a hint of hope.  The idea of giving Pete made Mikey feel better.  But he really didn’t have a plan so when he spoke it was a completely out of his ass.  He didn’t even know what he was saying.

“We sneak them in,” Mikey started cautiously, trying to figure out what he could possibly turn this into.  “And we keep them away from people, that way they can’t influence anyone in the camp. It’s not like they can get word back to Nico and the Niners without leaving, and if they don’t get a chance to brainwash anything it’d be in their best interest not to leave.  Plus this way if they’re telling the truth they have the asylum they were seeking.”

As soon as Mikey said it he knew it was a bad plan.  There was only one way in and out of this camp and that was heavily guarded, and quite honestly it was concerning that nobody was guarding the entire fence especially after he had talked to commander Hoppus.  And if they did get these two in undetected, where would they hide them? The camp was big for a camp, but still really small compared to the communities pre-apocalypse, it was hard to hide anything around these camps without anyone finding out let alone to actual human boys.  It was impossible and irrational. And even though he knew this he really hoped that Pete wouldn’t say so to his face.

“That’s perfect,” Pete said excitedly.  Before Mikey could tell Pete how far from perfect his plan truly was Pete was at the fence.  “I’m Pete, and that’s Mikey, he came up with a plan that will work out for us all.”

“Thank you,” the two boys said but they weren’t looking at Pete they were looking at Mikey.

“You better not pull any of that twisted Niners bullshit in here,” Mikey said as a response.

“We wouldn’t,” Buzzcut answered making an ‘X’ over his heart.  His counterpart followed his lead and nodded his head.

“Okay, good,” Pete nodded back, “here’s the deal, we’ll sneak you in and once you're in you talk to no one but us.  Got it?”

“Yes, of course,” Buzzcut answered.

“Okay, follow my lead,” Pete started walking back by the barracks building and Mikey followed behind him walking in perfect sync with Buzzcut.  Instead of going to the front of building like they usually did Pete walked along the fence behind it. Mikey wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed it before but there was a set of doors in the ground inside the fence, but that wasn’t the only thing, there was a small gap in the fence.

“What the fuck is this?” Mikey asked feeling even more on edge about being in this camp than he ever had.

“Don’t worry,” Pete said grabbing Mikey’s hand, “they’re working on fixing it, we’re just lucky they haven’t yet.”

“No, no we’re not,” Mikey said shaking his head, “I can’t stay here, I really can’t.”  Mikey tore his hand away from Pete and started to walk away, but Pete lunged at him and wrapped his arms around him from behind.

“You’re safe, I will make sure you stay safe,” Pete whispered into Mikey’s ear, “I promise that I’ll put my life before yours, I won’t let you die before you find your brother again.”

“Get off of me,” Mikey said, and his whole body was shaking as he remembered the day the camp he had temporarily stayed in had been attacked.  How it felt to be locked behind a fence with only one way out, and too many people fighting to make it out alive. Pete’s words meant nothing to him, not with that gap in the fence.

“I’ll keep you safe,” Pete repeated, “I won’t let anything happen to you.  We’ll find your brother, and the two of you can come back here and live this thing out safely.  You won’t die here by zombie infection, you’ll die here of old age and a life fulfilled, I promise you.  Now pull yourself together and help me save these two.”

“I’m not coming back here,” Mikey said, “but I’ll help you with these two.  Get off of me.” Pete let go, but it didn’t make Mikey feel better like he thought it would, it actually made the shaking worse.  But he cleared his throat and did his best to hide it.

“I’ll keep lookout,” Pete said abruptly but didn’t look Mikey in the eye.  “You help them through the gap, once they’re in I’ll open those doors. We’ll have them wait there while we get them some food and water and go from there.”

“Fine,” Mikey said with his arms crossed tightly across his chest.  What he didn’t say was that once they were in safely Mikey was going to leave, for real this time.  He waited for Pete to walk a little ways away from where he was standing, even watched as Pete sat down with his back against the building to make it seem like he was just hanging out.  When Mikey was sure that nobody was around he motioned for the boys to crawl through.

The crazy-haired one went first, but when he got in Mikey patted him down to make sure he wasn’t hiding any weapons, and he wasn’t but he winced when Mikey touched him.  Either he was telling the truth or Nico had trained him well in the act of pretending.

“Okay stand against the wall,” Mikey said before motioning for the other.  This one climbed in faster than the first and moved more spastically. As Mikey patted him down his entire body was tense, and his eyes were screwed shut.

“You’re hurting him,” the crazy-haired one said.

“It’s okay Josh,” Buzzcut rasped.  “He’s just keeping his family safe.”

“These people aren’t my family,” Mikey interjected.  “Okay, Pete they’re clear.”

Mikey watched silently as Pete put in the combination that opened the lock on the bilco doors.  He noticed the way that Pete’s hands were shaking, they were shaking so bad it took three tries before he actually got the combination right.

“Okay, you’re going to have to hang out down there until we get a chance to figure something out,” Pete told them.

“In the dark?” Buzzcut asked his voice shaking.

“Yeah?” Pete asked looking to Mikey for help.

“Can’t we just hang out back here,” Buzzcut asked backing away from the doors.  Josh grabbed his shoulder.

“Tyler it’s okay,” Josh said.

“We’ll be back,” Mikey told them both.  “We’re going to get you something to eat, something to drink, and maybe something to keep you warm.  We’ll be fast.”

Tyler and Josh both looked at Mikey like they were trying to find the lie.  After a few moments, Tyler nodded and let Josh lead him down a few steps before he went still.

“You don’t have to go all the way down,” Mikey offered, “you can sit on the stairs as long as you go down far enough to shut the doors.”

“Yeah, yeah that works,” Tyler stuttered and finally started to move again.

“There’s fine,” Pete spoke up.  Tyler and Josh looked over their shoulders and at Mikey for confirmation.  Confused how he had been given the role of guardian of these two, but he nodded his head in agreement.  They slowly sat down together and stayed rather close to each other. Mikey felt awful closing the doors on them, but he did it anyway and turned away when Pete put the lock back on.

“We can’t leave them there,” Mikey told Pete.

“We can’t put them somewhere else,” Pete retorted.  He watched Mikey carefully from his peripheral vision, and he noticed the way Mikey was deliberately focusing intensely on not looking back at Pete.  It was that gap in the fence, and Pete knew that if Mikey found out about it things would take a turn for the worse, and it seemed like it was. So far he couldn’t even get Mikey to look at him, and not only did that gap give Mikey a reason to leave it gave him a way to leave undetected.  But in the end, Pete knew that letting Tyler and Josh in, was for the best. It saved two more lives.

“Listen to me, we can’t leave them there,” Mikey said finally looking up at Pete.

“It was your idea,” Pete shook his head.

Frustrated Mikey grabbed Pete by the shoulder and pulled him to a stop.

“Didn’t you see their faces when I patted them down,” Mikey asked setting his face in stone.

“Yeah, but you were the one who said it could be an act,” Pete answered back confused with what Mikey thought was for the best.  He kept contradicting himself and making things harder for Pete.

“I don’t think they’re acting,” Mikey answered.  “And even if they are it doesn’t change the fact that Nico treats them like absolute shit in that fucking cult of his.  They’re not faking the bruises and scars that they probably hidden under those clothes. They’re not faking being co-dependant on each other and seeking one single authority figure.  If it was an act they would look at both of us for permission, not just me. Leaving them down there could be a reminder of some cruel punishment Nico put them through.”

“Who are these people?”  Pete asked jerking his head to get Mikey to start moving again.

“Nico and the Niners?” Mikey clarified.

“Yeah.”

“It’s a cult, and Nico is the one the Niners worship,” Mikey told him.  “I guess he was this huge survivalist before the apocalypse actually started so he had all these supplies and plans.  Word about him spread pretty fast early on, and people just flocked towards him. It grew so fast they were able to take over this motel that they turned into a fortress.  Gerard, Ray and I actually lived there for a bit, but then shit got really dark. Nico would sneak in and out of rooms all the time, rooms of young girls because separated them for everyone else, and then he started to hold sermons that were required and if you didn’t go he’d get those who were drinking the Kool-Aid to beat the shit out of you.  Gerard, Ray and I took a number of beatings while we gathered some supplies before we left. We got out just before it got impossible to get out. But when we were leaving we heard some of the Niners talking about draining the pool to use for ritual practices because Nico said that the zombie apocalypse was brought on to cleanse the world of undesirables.  And he talked about that in sermons and it was some Nazi level shit. Out there though everyone knows about Nico and the Niners because they hunt humans now. They hunt people to sacrifice, and they hunt young girls and boys to raise and use to repopulate. That’s the kind of stuff Tyler and Josh have lived with, and the dark enclosed space probably doesn’t help.  But limiting the people they’re in contact with is still pretty important just in case, plus it might overwhelm them.”

“We can’t keep them in the barracks if Hoppus finds out we let them in through the gap he’d kill me,”  Pete whispered as a couple of people passed by. But he didn’t say anything else even after they were out of earshot.  Mikey looked around trying to find anything that could help them, but he didn’t see anything. He didn’t know the camp well enough to know if there were any good hiding places.  “Too bad Jack left,” Pete said just as they made it to the door of the dining hall.

“Why?” Mikey asked confused by what Jack had to do with anything.

“Because he claims he knows the perfect hiding spot,” Pete replied nonchalantly, “he even joked that he could hide people there without them being found.  He won’t tell anyone, not even Alex, because he doesn’t want his Oreo stash to be taken advantage of.”

“He has an Oreo hiding spot?” Mikey asked, surprised that there were still Oreos.  “Do you really think it could hide people?”

“It’s hard to tell with him,” Pete answered, “and it’s not like it matters they’re long gone by now.”

“Well we need to figure something out,” Mikey told Pete quietly.  “Is there a limit on the food you can take?”

“Not really, but you’ll get stares of disdain if you take a lot,” Pete told Mikey with a shrug of his shoulders.  “Supplies is limited and all.”

“Pete, hey Pete over here!” It was Brendon, and he was at a table with the rest of Pete’s squad, the girl Hayley from the medic tent, and a girl Mikey recognized as Marie.  She was practically in Joe’s lap, and they were both smiling. Mikey was glad to see at least two people finding some kind of silver lining in this awful world. “Come sit with us, bring Mikey with you.”

“No,” Mikey whispered, “we can’t, we have to get back to Tyler and Josh.”

“If I don’t they’ll know something is up,” Pete told Mikey.

“Okay, then I’ll go back alone,” Mikey said.  “I can just fill my plate up, you can give me the combination and I can go keep them company.  And if they ask, tell them we fought or something and I don’t want to be around anyone right now.”

“Yeah, okay fine,” Pete said.  “Just don’t forget the combination, if you come back it’ll look suspicious.  It’s three, twenty-two, thirteen.”

“Got it,” Mikey nodded.  It wouldn’t be too hard for him to remember, just a three digit combination.  When they got to the end of the line Mikey looked over his shoulder one last time to see the way Marie had backed off of Joe a little, her arm was resting reassuringly on his arm but neither was smiling.  Marie kept glancing between her plate, Joe, and Pete. And Joe looked at his plate and nothing else. Something about Joe’s anger towards Pete made Mikey angry, it’s not like Pete killed Joe’s parents for sport, he did to save Joe’s life.  It was time for Joe to forgive Pete. “Hey, Pete,” Mikey called after him before Pete could get too far away.

“Yeah?” Pete turned back towards Mikey and moving closer to him so they could keep it quiet.

“Stop letting Joe treat you like shit,” Mikey said, with the words just barely escaping his throat.  “I barely know you, but I know you don’t deserve it. You saved him, so at the very least you need to forgive yourself.  Gerard always told me that he really started to forgive himself for killing our parents when he started thinking about it as doing what they would have wanted; saving their sons and keeping them from being mindless monsters for whatever time they would’ve had left.  Joe’s parents would be grateful to you for saving their son, and from keeping them in some endless tortuous cycle of whatever it is that these zombies go through. The moment you forgive yourself is the moment Joe will realize that he needs to forgive you too.”

Mikey walked away before Pete could respond, grabbing a cup of water on his way out.  Pete took a moment to blink away the tears that Mikey’s words extracted from his tear ducts.  There was something about being told to forgive himself that left Pete feeling hollow. But what hurt more was that Mikey didn’t know how far Pete was from forgiving himself.  He didn’t know how to forgive himself when nobody knew the full story.

“No Mikey?” Hayley asked when Pete sat down in the empty spot across from her.  “I was kind of hoping that I could check on his bullet wounds.”

“More like check him out,” Brendon mumbled into his own shoulder.  Hayley punched his arm as her face started to go slightly pink.

“His wounds aren’t bothering him,” Pete said his voice quiet, but thick with sadness.  “And we fought so he stormed off. It seemed like he needed to cool down, so I decided to give him space.”

“You’re pretty good at driving people away,” Joe said looking up for half a second.  The table fell into silence like it always did when Joe threw cold comments Pete’s way.  And like always Pete closed his eyes and told himself he deserved it, even as Mikey’s words spun around his head.

 

***

 

Mikey walked back to that hole in the ground, biting his tongue the whole time.  Those words that he had let spill out of his mouth for Pete were all too familiar to Mikey.  He had overheard his mother tell them to Gerard when the two of them had gotten into a big fight, or what seemed like a big fight back then.  Looking back Mikey couldn’t even remember what that fight was about, but he could remember that he never thought he’d forgive Gerard again. A few years later Mikey had practically forced her to remember what she had told Gerard, so he could hear her say it to him, but it wasn’t the same.  She didn’t even realize that she had said such an important thing to Gerard, or that Mikey had overheard. After some time had passed after that big fight, Mikey had thought his mom had wasted those words on such a stupid, petty fight, but now he was glad she did. If she hadn’t there was no saying for certain that she would’ve before this whole mess had started.  And if Gerard and Mikey hadn’t heard those words, things would be a lot different now. And now all Mikey could do was hope that his mother’s words would help Pete out too.

Setting the plate and cup down, Mikey put the combination and opened the door slowly.  When he did Tyler and Josh peeked hesitantly over their shoulders. There was no space between the two of them, and Mikey noticed that Tyler was shaking while Josh kept him tucked into his side.

“Hey, you two can come out now,” Mikey smiled at them, “I have food, and water.  It’s not a lot but it was the best I could do.”

“Thank you,” Josh said licking his lips.  He gently nudged Josh, to get him to move.  Tyler moved slowly like his legs were going to give out any moment, and Josh walked up behind him up the stairs with his arms out like he was waiting for the moment Tyler fell back.

“You two brothers?” Mikey asked as Tyler sat down in front of the plate.  

“No,” Josh said sitting across from Tyler.  “We were best friends, and our parents brought us here when they heard about Nico and the Niners.”

“Brought you from where?”

“Ohio.”

“People out in Ohio know about Nico and the Niners?” Mikey was shocked.  He wasn’t even sure how word would spread as far as Ohio about the insanity of Nico and his very own zombie crew the Niners.  It made no sense to Mikey.

“Yeah, everyone knows about them,” Josh shrugged grabbing one of the dinner rolls Mikey had grabbed and tearing off part of it.

“Do you mind me asking what happened?” Mikey looked at the two of them curiously.

“Nico killed my dad,” Tyler spat, “and made both of our mom’s one of his many wives.  He’s sick, he has Josh’s dad out hunting people. He locked Josh and me into this room with a few other guys our age and told us if we wanted out, we’d kill everyone in that room.  At first, nobody did anything, and then the hunger and thirst came, and so did the bloodbath. Josh and I were the last two standing, and he let us out so we could help create the next generation.  But we escaped with the help of our moms, and a little arson.”

“Fuck,” Mikey sucked in a deep breath, “I’m sorry, that’s fucked up.”

“Yeah, well, this entire world is fucked up, it was, even before this stupid apocalypse happened.” Tyler dropped his face into his hands and Josh reached over the plate to squeeze his shoulder.  Watching the way the two of them interacted made Mikey wish Gerard was here more than he had before. He couldn’t take it any longer, he needed to know what had happened to his brother.

 


	9. Chapter 9

Mikey sat with Tyler and Josh until Pete came back.  They didn’t talk much, but every time any kind of noise came from the other side of the fence, the three of them would stiffen.  The more time that Mikey spent with Tyler and Josh, the more he could see himself and Gerard. Josh, of course, was Gerard because he was watching over the timid Tyler, who was Mikey.  It was odd how close the dynamic of the two was to the dynamic he and his brother had shared especially when they were younger.

But when Pete came around, Josh seemed more protective of Tyler than when it was just Mikey and the two of them.  He wasn’t sure why they seemed so much more uneasy around Pete, seeing as Pete was the only reason Mikey even thought of giving them a chance.  If Mikey hadn’t seen the way this problem made Pete feel conflicted he would’ve pointed them away without even a second thought. And now that they were here Mikey was extremely conflicted himself; he had no idea if he could trust them or not, but deep down he knew he really wanted to be able to trust them.  

“Come up with any ideas on where they can stay?” Mikey asked as he got to his feet.  Pete looked past him at Tyler and Josh who wouldn’t look back at him. It reminded Pete of the way Joe went completely out of the way to divert his attention from him whenever they were around each other, and with Mikey’s words still dancing around his mind, he couldn’t concentrate on anything but the past.

Wanting to make sure that Tyler and Josh didn’t overhear him, Pete grabbed Mikey’s arm lightly and pulled him a little further away from him.  He looked over his shoulder at the two one more time, before subtly shaking his head.

“No,” Pete was quiet, a lot more than Mikey was learning that he usually was.  “But I asked about Nico and the Niners at dinner, to see if any of my friends knew about them.”

“Yeah, and what happened?” Mikey asked crossing his arms over his chest.

“Brendon said that a couple days before we got back there were a couple of people from Dema, which I guess is the name of Nico’s camp, asking to speak to the people of our camp.” Pete dropped his hand from Mikey’s arm, before continuing.  “Apparently Commander Hoppus went and spoke to them to see what it was all about, and he turned them away. When he did the two of them threatened him, and the entire camp saying that Dema was expanding and with Nico as their guide the Niners would come back to this camp and kill any of us who resisted his commandments.”

Mikey looked back over his shoulder to see Tyler with his head in Josh’s lap, his eyes closed and his breathing kind of steady.  Josh was watching Mikey and Pete carefully as he sat completely still to keep from waking Tyler.

“Do you think it could be them?” Mikey asked, even though he wasn’t sure Nico’s tactic would be so subtle.

“Well, I’m not sure,” Pete admitted, “I wanted to ask you because you were in there.”

“I don’t know,” Mikey shrugged his shoulders.  “I don’t think Nico would try such a subtle tactic or a stupid one.  Sending two people seeking asylum from him only days after threatening this camp, but then again he could think that Commander Hoppus would think the same thing, grant them asylum, wait for some kind of signal and then attack.  He’s clever and tricky, I honestly don’t know what to think.”

“Okay,” Pete nodded his head.  Mikey would’ve turned away if it hadn’t looked like Pete had something more to say.

“Is there something else?” Mikey asked.

“Yeah, how are you feeling?” Pete wouldn’t meet Mikey’s eyes.  He realized he had asked Mikey this question quite a number of times, in various ways, but he still had asked it.  Usually, he meant it in a way that was more about how Mikey felt physically, with the underlying tone being how he felt emotionally, but this time it was all about how he felt.  How he felt about staying, about the hole in the fence, about his brother being gone, about being reminded of his time in Dema, about Tyler and Josh being here, and how he felt about Pete himself.  Sure Mikey had told him that what he had done was for the best, but part of him couldn’t believe Mikey’s words. Both Patrick and Andy had reassured Pete that when he killed Joe’s parents he had done was best for all of them every now and then, but even so, they started to treat him differently.  Their words didn’t mean much when the way they acted around him contradicted them quite a bit.

“I’m fine,” Mikey said looking at the bandages in his arms, “they’re a little sore, but it’s not so bad.”

“Not your arms,” Pete said, “I mean you, how are you feeling about everything?”

“Conflicted,” Mikey said turning away from Pete.  When he was back by Tyler and Josh he looked over his shoulder to see Pete standing alone with his shoulders and head hanging low.  He was wringing his hands and watching them. “Except for one thing, I feel like I told you I did. You did what was best, and you need to forgive yourself for that.”

Pete looked up from his hands, and when he met Mikey’s eyes he felt his heart stop.  The sincerity in his tone made Pete feel like he really did have an ally after all. But it wasn’t just that, he started to notice how beautiful Mikey was again.  There really was something about that jawline and those cheekbones that worked perfectly together. And then there were those eyes of his. They were like an expensive whiskey, not only in their color but in the way Pete could admire them for the way he felt warm when they focused on him like he felt warm whenever he was drinking whiskey.  It was a good kind of warm, one that left him wanting more. It was nice to have Mikey on his side for more reasons than one.

“Thanks,” Pete muttered.  “When did you two get out of Dema?”

Tyler was still sleeping but Josh acted like he hadn’t heard Pete’s question.  Instead, he looked to Mikey.

“When did you guys escape Dema?” Mikey parroted Pete, sitting across from Josh.

“Three days ago,” Josh whispered so he didn’t wake Tyler up.  “Dema isn’t too far from here, but we had to move carefully because we didn’t have anything to protect us.”

Mikey and Pete shared a look.  It was nearly impossible to survive out there without some kind of weapon.  The two of them could’ve been lucky, or somehow smart enough to make a three-day journey without any weapons, but it really seemed unlikely.

“How’d you make it here then?  The zombies have been all over this area lately.” Pete asked, but again Josh wouldn’t answer him.

“Josh can you please answer his question,” Mikey asked already tired of this little game Tyler and Josh were playing.

“Luck I guess,” Josh shrugged his shoulders.  “I don’t know, all I know is that we ran. Our mothers helped create a distraction by setting a small fire inside the camp and they told us to run.  They couldn’t let us die in there, not after losing our siblings.”

“You have siblings?” Mikey asked.

“I had two sisters and a brother.” Josh closed his eyes.  “Abigail was away when this whole thing started, Ashley turned on our way here, my dad had to put her down.  Jordan was taken when we first got to camp and was killed by Nico as some fucked up sacrifice. Tyler had two brothers and a sister.  Jay, like Ashley, didn’t make it all the way here. Zack was in the room next to Tyler and I but he didn’t make it out alive. And his sister, Madison, was sick when we got Dema so Nico told us that he was going to take her to the medic tent, but instead, he used her as bait to attract the zombies that he uses as weapons like he does with all the sick.  It was fucked up from the minute we arrived, but our parents were just so tired they had no idea how to fight back.” Mikey watched as Josh’s tears slowly crawled down his dirty cheeks leaving behind a thin line of clean skin. He felt Pete sit down beside him, and looked at him. Pete shrugged his shoulders because neither of them were sure what to believe.  It could all be an act, or these two could just have really terrible timing.

“Do you know anything about some Niners making a threat towards this camp?” Pete asked, and for the first time, Josh immediately answered him.  He started shaking his head vigorously. His entire body shook to and it woke Tyler up, he sat up with a start and looked around to see what had Josh so upset.

“We had no idea,” Josh said, “I swear.”

Mikey watched Pete from the corner of his eye.  He could see that Pete was really conflicted by all of this.  And he knew there wasn’t much that Pete could do in this situation, but Mikey figured he could help.  Even though he hated to admit it, Pete really had saved Mikey, so Mikey was going to return the favor.  When he left tonight he would take Tyler and Josh with him. It was the least he could do. By taking them with him he would save Pete the trouble of having to decode the reason the two of them were actually there, and if the Niners did come back, but this time to find the two that had escaped that no one in the camp would have to lie to save them because they wouldn’t be there.  It was for the best.

“I believe you,” Mikey said abruptly.  “And I need you to trust me. Until we can find somewhere else for you to stay unnoticed, you two are going to have to stay in the cellar.  Nobody will bother you down there, and even if Nico and the Niners show up they won’t be able to get to you. Can you trust me on this?”

Josh looked to Tyler before he finally said, “Yes, we’ll trust you.”

“Okay, good,” Mikey looked at Pete.  Knowing that he was leaving tonight he felt awful for not saying something, mostly because Pete had been so nice to him this whole time and everyone at this camp was so welcoming.  But despite this, he had to find Gerard, and there was no way he could stay in camp with that gap in the fence. And then he thought of Frank. If he told Frank he was leaving he’d only want to come with, and Mikey knew that it was for the best that he left Frank in a place he knew he’d be able to find him once he got Gerard back.  For once he wasn’t going to let everyone else fall over themselves to save him, instead, he was going to do what was right and keep everyone else safe, even if it meant hurting them first.

“I hate to do this,” Pete said solemnly, “But my squad will be coming back any second so I need you to get back in there.”

“Can Mikey come with us?” Tyler looked at Mikey with pleading eyes.

“No, if he’s missing my squad will get suspicious.  I’m sorry.” Pete was quick to answer like Mikey might answer first and tell Tyler and Josh yes.  And part of Pete was worried about that. He hated the idea of locking Mikey up like an animal, and he was afraid that the two of them would gang up on Mikey and seriously hurt him, or worse.  There was no way Pete could even consider risking it.

“I’m sorry,” Mikey nodded, “I really am.  But I’ll be back as soon as I can.” And Mikey truly meant it.  As soon as he knew for certain that everyone was sleeping in the barracks Mikey would come back for Tyler and Josh and the three of them would leave The Last of the Real Ones behind, and by doing so it would keep everyone in the camp safe.

“Promise you’ll come back?” Tyler asked sticking out his pinky.  Mikey nodded, connecting his pinky with Tyler’s.

“I promise,” Mikey finally replied as he let go of Tyler’s hand.  Josh went back down the stairs first, only going down as far as he had before.  Tyler followed behind him and as Mikey closed the door behind them, they both watched like puppies who were watching their owners leave for the day and already anticipating the great return.

Mikey couldn’t bear the idea of locking the padlock into place, so he let Pete do the horrible honors.  It seemed like the action of locking them in there bothered Pete too, but Mikey could tell that Pete was distancing himself from these two, just like Mikey knew he should, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do so.  It was nearly impossible without Gerard by his side.

“I’m tired,” Mikey forced a yawn out and started heading back towards the barracks.  He knew that whether he waited for Pete or not, Pete would follow him back. “How was dinner?” Mikey asked once Pete caught up with him.  

“Tense, like usual.” Pete sighed.  “Joe wanted Patrick to tell you that he was spending the night with Marie again so his bed is all yours, but I figured it really didn’t matter if Patrick told you or if I did.”

“Did he mention her being pregnant yet,” Mikey teased even though he was still fairly certain she was.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Pete rolled his eyes.  “Joe isn’t stupid enough to get his girlfriend pregnant while zombies are running around.”

“Well, he seems pretty stupid considering he hasn’t forgiven you for saving his life,” Mikey retorted.  Honestly, Mikey liked Joe, but he was aggravated by this unnecessary grudge that Joe was torturing Pete with.  If Mikey wasn’t leaving that night he was sure he’d eventually say something to Joe.

“For killing his parents, you mean.” Pete corrected Mikey.

“For putting down the zombies the became,” Mikey said, this time his tone was a little harsh.  He wanted Pete to understand that by killing Joe’s parents he had saved everyone involved. Leaving meant that Pete would be stuck in the same cycle of Joe sending a number of off-handed comments Pete’s way while everyone sat back and let him, including Pete.  It made Mikey’s skin crawl. The whole thing was unfair. And for a moment Mikey thought that maybe he should wait just one more night, but really he couldn’t wait any longer. “Seriously Pete, you did what was right.”

“But if it was right, why does it feel like I did everything wrong,” Pete forced a cough out to try and cover up the fact that it hurt so much to lose everything he lost the moment he pulled that gun out of his bag.  

“It usually feels that way when you do the right thing,” Mikey looked at Pete.  He wasn’t just saying this for Pete’s benefit but for his own as well. Leaving was going to be hard, and he knew it, but it was the right thing to do.  And maybe it was because he was leaving that he reached out for Pete’s hand. Their fingers fell perfectly in place interlaced with one another. Pete’s words drifted in the back of Mikey’s mind: _keep touching me like that and I might have to kiss you_.  Mikey wasn’t sure why they had come back to him, but they had, and they circled around his mind nonstop.

“Does this make us friends?” Pete asked lifting their hands up into their line of vision, breaking Mikey out of the trance Pete’s words had created for him.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Mikey answered shaking out of Pete’s grasp.

Pete watched as Mikey wiped his hand on his jeans, before running it through his hair.  Behind Mikey the sun was starting to set, casting a glow of bleeding color over Mikey. It was very fitting, Pete thought, the way the hues of orange and red and pink mixed together creating the perfect palate to highlight Mikey.  Despite the world going to hell, the sky seemed to have no problem flaunting the fact that it was doing just fine all the way up there.

“It’s crazy that after all of this the sun still sets so nicely,” Pete piped up as they rounded the corner of the building.  Standing just outside the doorway was Frank, but Sweet Pea wasn’t in sight.

“Yeah, the sun is a bitch,” Mikey joked but his eyes were on Frank.  “Where’s Sweet Pea?”

“Back at my tent,” Frank replied, “she’s an old girl, she needs her rest.  Can I talk to you?”

“Sure,” Mikey looked at Pete, “I guess I’ll meet you inside.”  Pete nodded his head and walked in without a second thought. Even though he knew he shouldn’t eavesdrop, Pete hovered around the inside of the doorway.  

“So I was wondering if you wanted to stay in my tent with me,” Frank offered.  “It’s just Sweet Pea and me, but I figured you’d want to stay with someone you knew.”

“Maybe tomorrow night,” Mikey couldn’t meet Frank’s eyes because he knew that tomorrow night he’d be quite a bit gone.  “One more night in a bed would be nice.”

“I get it,” Frank patted Mikey’s shoulder.  “How are your arms?”

“They’re fine,” Mikey said looking down at the gauze.  “They haven’t bled, and they’re not really sore at all.  Healing quick, I guess.”

“That’s good,” Frank smiled, but it wasn't real.  “The faster you recover, the faster we can go find Gerard.”

“I’m not waiting until I’m completely healed,” Mikey argued because he knew that if he just gave in Frank would find it suspicious.  “Just healed enough to swing my bat again.”

“Bat?” Frank asked confusion all over the place.

“Yeah, a bat,” Mikey pulled out a yawn deep from inside.  “I should let you get some sleep, see you tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah, good night Frank,” Mikey didn’t wait for Frank to reply before going inside.

Pete tried to move as fast as he could so he wouldn’t be caught eavesdropping, but instead he ended up running right into Mikey.  Normally he would apologize, and try to come up with some kind of excuse for being right by the door, but he was starting to learn that beating around the bush wasn’t the best way to go when dealing with Mikey.

“So you think Joe should forgive me, but you have no problem dangling your anger right in front of Frank,” Pete said before Mikey could get an accusatory word out.

“What are you talking about?” Mikey asked him taking a step back from Pete.

“You’re still mad at him, and you’re not really hiding it,” Pete shrugged his shoulders.  “How is that any different than what Joe does to me?”

“Because you saved him, and Frank saved himself,” Mikey pushed past Pete and went right to the room that Pete’s squad stayed in.  In all honesty, Mikey hadn’t realized he felt that way until he said it out loud. But it was true, he was mad at Frank and part of it was because he thought Frank had been selfish.  

When Mikey got into the room he was surprised to see that Andy and Patrick were already in bed, and sleeping.  Now all he had to do was out last Pete, get a key to the safe, and then he’d be free. It wouldn’t be too hard to stay awake seeing as that once he was lying down in that bed his mind went right to that gap in the fence.  Or as his mind liked to call it the _all are_ welcome _sign_. The real issue was that Pete didn’t seem like he was ready to fall asleep any time soon either.

“Can’t sleep?” Pete spoke up after what had to be at least an hour of silence and staring at the ceiling.

“Not with that fence gap,” Mikey answered flipping on to his stomach and turning his head to look at Pete.  He wasn’t too surprised to see that Pete was looking at him already. But he was shocked that Pete was shirtless and lying on his side staring right at Mikey like he’d rather do that than sleep.  It took everything Mikey had not to look at Pete’s chest, he didn’t even know why it was so hard not to look.

“It’s not as bad as it seems,” Pete yawned.  “You want to know what I do when I can’t sleep.”

“Not particularly,” Mikey teased before saying, “yeah, sure.”

Instead of using his words Pete decided he would just show Mikey.  He climbed out of his bed, laid his pillow down on the floor and let the cold tile floor meet his skin as he laid down on the floor.

“Why?” Mikey asked unsure of how lying on the floor could possibly help someone fall asleep.  Especially when the floor wasn’t layered in a soft, comforting carpet, but rather cold, harsh tile.  It seemed counterproductive if anything.

“I don’t know,” Pete answered looking up at Mikey from his place on the floor.  Even from this angle, an angle that would be unflattering to anyone, Mikey looked magnificent.  Nobody should look that good, especially during the zombie apocalypse, Pete thought to himself as he admired what he could make out of Mikey’s features in the dark.  There wasn’t much he could see, but he was starting to memorize those features anyway, so he didn’t really need the light. Breaking himself out of Mikey’s spell he added, “I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.  If I couldn’t sleep I’d climb out of bed and just lay down on the floor. It always made me feel better, and I’d fall asleep faster.”

“Weird,” Mikey said offhandedly.  Before he knew what he was doing, he was joining Pete on the floor.  There wasn’t a lot of space for the two of them so they had to lay on their sides facing each other.  “But I kind of get it. When I couldn’t sleep I’d sneak into Gerard’s room at night and sleep on his floor.  It got to the point where my mom tried to convince Gerard to share a room with me.” And that’s when Mikey remembered why his mother had told Gerard he needed to forgive himself.

“Actually, when she did that it caused a huge fight,” Mikey sighed.  His breath was fanning over Pete’s face, and Pete didn’t mind it. It was actually relaxing to him, to have the warm bursts of air tickle his nose and cheeks.  “Gerard said that he was sick of me sleeping on his floor and just wished I would grow up because I was too clingy and it was embarrassing. It was this big thing, and it hurt like a bitch.  I didn’t have a lot of friends in school, and I always considered Gerard my best friend, and my hero, so hearing him talk about me like that killed me. So instead of being sad, I decided to be angry.  I wouldn’t talk to him, I wouldn’t even look at him. On nights that I couldn’t sleep I would turn the lights on, lock the door, and just sit on my bed because Gerard would pass by and feel guilty, so he’d sit outside my door.  It went on for a few months until I overheard my mom and Gerard talking. Gerard was crying, he was saying he didn’t mean any of what he said, and the only reason he had said it was because some kid at school was teasing him about how I was like his pet dog, and Gerard didn’t like that some kid was calling me a dog.  And then I heard my mom tell Gerard that he had to forgive himself before I could forgive him. Eventually, he did, and so did I, and things went back to normal. I outgrew sleeping on his floor before eighth grade.”

“Wow, you recycled your mom’s words,” Pete joked with a smile on his face.  His eyelids were starting to feel heavy, and Mikey noticed the way they were slowing dipping down.  It was endearing.

“She was an amazing woman,” Mikey smiled back.  “You should go to sleep, you can barely keep your eyes open.”

“I don’t want you to be up all by yourself,” Pete yawned.

“It’s okay, I’ll probably fall asleep soon after anyway.” To try and prove his point Mikey forced himself to close his eyes.  He kept them that way for what felt like two hours, but in reality was probably only a few minutes. When he opened them again Pete was asleep, his moment had finally come.  Last night Pete had slept without his jeans on, but tonight he had chosen to keep them on, which only made it harder to find the key. Mikey carefully slipped his hand into Pete’s front pocket.  When he did find the key, he checked Pete’s back pocket. Just as he slipped his hand in, Pete started to roll on to his back. Mikey pulled his hand out fast, grabbed whatever Pete had in that pocket.  Mikey almost lost his balance but managed to catch himself before he could fall on to Pete. Leaning over Pete Mikey took a moment to breathe. Letting his head hang Mikey found himself looking down at the chest he so desperately tried to avoid looking at earlier.  It was toned, and after the year that they had all been through Mikey wasn’t surprised, and he had to admit it was a nice chest. But then his eyes found Pete’s face. All Mikey could make out were outlines of certain features, like Pete’s lips. The upper lip was like the perfect cupid’s bow.  It was almost impossible to ignore once it was seen, and Mikey wasn’t sure he would ever be able to draw his eyes away until he remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

Using his arms to push himself back, Mikey sat back on his knees.  He looked at what was in his hand and was surprised to see it was his own wallet.  There was a key in it, but not the one he was looking for. It was his house key. Mikey looked at the wallet then at Pete wondering why Pete even bothered grabbing it off the table, it wasn’t like anything in it was important anymore.  Even so, Mikey slipped in his back pocket and told himself that if he did end up coming back with Gerard that he would thank Pete for keeping it.

Finally, Mikey reached into the other front pocket of Pete’s jeans, and the key was right there.  Like a cat, Mikey made his way to the safe with silent stealth. He opened the safe doing his best to keep it from making any kind of noise.  Carefully he grabbed his backpack, which was still filled with supplies that Pete had packed with, his baseball bat, and his gun. For a moment he considered taking more than what was actually is, but then he thought of how generous Pete and his friends had been and he closed the door.

“Take a shotgun,” A voice whispered, and it startled Mikey.  When he turned around he saw Patrick sitting up on his bed. “And one of those maps.”

“I-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Patrick interrupted, “but please take a shotgun and map at least.  Having a map will increase your chances of finding your brother and the more weapons you have the more likely you’ll be able to do so alive.  Plus it’ll make Pete feel better knowing you left with protection and a way to find your way back here.”

“I can’t take anything else from you,” Mikey shook his head.

“Okay so don’t,” Patrick shrugged.  “Don’t take it, borrow it. Once you find your brother, you can use the map to come back here and you can give them both back.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.  Lock it back up when you’re done.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Patrick laid back down on his bed.  Even though Patrick had told him to take a shotgun Mikey still hesitated, the map, on the other hand, he had no problem taking.  After a moment he finally grabbed one of the guns, closed the safe door and locked the door. He put the key back in Pete’s pocket and left.

“Stay safe,” he heard Patrick whisper as he walked out the door.  A pang of guilt filled his chest as he left, and he worried what Pete would do when he woke up in the morning to see that Mikey was gone.  He hoped that it wasn’t anything too drastic, if not for Pete’s sake then for Patrick’s. Mikey knocked on the bilco doors before opening them so he didn’t scare Tyler and Josh.  When the doors opened they looked at him like he was an angel.

“We’re leaving,” Mikey said motioning for them to come up.

“Where are we going?” Tyler asked.

“To find my brother,” Mikey replied.  “Come one we have to get moving before anyone notices us.”

“Yeah, okay,” Josh nodded, giving Tyler a light shove.  “Is Pete coming too?”

“No, he doesn't know,” Mikey told them as his stomach started to twist with guilt all over again.  Even as he reminded himself that he was leaving so he could find Gerard, the guilt didn’t necessarily subside.

“Why not?” Tyler asked once he stepped onto the grass, Josh close behind him.

“He doesn’t want me to leave,” Mikey answered.  “Okay, so we need to be quiet, do either of you know how to shoot a gun?”

Tyler shook his head no, even taking a step back from the shotgun Mikey was holding.

“Kind of,” Josh said with a shrug.

“Take this,” Mikey handed Josh the shotgun and watched as he slung the strap over his back.  “Okay no more talking, follow close behind me, and stay low.”

Tyler and Josh nodded and watched as Mikey wiggled his way through the gap.  Tyler was next, and Josh took up the rear. The complete darkness of the night was almost shocking.  The stars and moon were covered by the clouds, so it was nearly impossible to see anything. Mikey reached behind him and grabbed Tyler’s hand.  Silently he communicated to Tyler to hold on to his belt loop, and Tyler did the same to Josh. They walked slowly and carefully made their way into the brush so they could remain hidden.  For a while, there was no sound, and the air was still. Everything was fine, but Mikey still couldn’t relax. He probably never would be able to again.

***

 

Going back to sleep after Mikey left was really hard, especially because Patrick knew that when Pete woke up in the morning and saw Mikey was gone, he would try to slip out through that gap in the fence because there was no way he’d get permission from Commander Hoppus to go after Mikey.  If there was one reason Patrick found a best friend in Pete all those years ago was the fact that he would give so much of himself and not expect anything in return, and that was for strangers. Once Pete started caring for someone that only grew more intense, and Patrick saw that from the moment he met Pete.  It was always something he admired, but over the years he had seen it work against Pete in the worst ways imaginable. And this time he knew that it would drive Pete nuts, more so than usual, but he had no idea how to be there for Pete. But he knew how to keep Pete inside the camp.

That morning when Patrick woke up he tossed his pillow at Andy.  He felt bad when he saw the way Andy woke with a start, and the only reason Patrick even considered waking him up in such a startling way was because he knew Andy would stay quiet in the face of a harsh wake-up call.  To make sure he didn’t speak Patrick lifted a finger to his lips and pointed towards the door. It was a silent communication that he wanted Andy to meet him outside, and Andy understood right away, it was only more proof that he always had Patrick’s back.  As they both climbed down from their beds, Andy noticed that Pete was on the floor and that Mikey wasn’t present. And with one look at Patrick, he knew that this was why he was woken up via pillow.

Once they were in the hallway Patrick started leading Andy towards Commander Hoppus’s office.

“We have to fix that gap,” Patrick said before Andy could even ask.

“Okay,” Andy said simply.  He wanted to ask where the sudden urgency had come from.  They had put off fixing that gap for a few weeks, but suddenly Patrick was throwing a pillow at him so early in the morning the sun wasn’t even up yet and getting him to sneak into the Commander’s office to fix it.  As much as he wanted to ask, he knew that Patrick always did what was for the best so he had no need to ask questions. Besides Patrick had a lot on his mind all the time, he didn’t need Andy questioning his decisions.

As the leader of the best squad the camp had, Patrick had a key to Commander Hoppus’s office, but when he got to the door he realized he didn’t need it.  There was a lantern lit in the office, and the door was cracked open.

Patrick looked over his shoulder at Andy with a look of concern on his face.  Hoppus was never in his office this early, he had told Patrick once that just because zombies were working before the sun came up, it didn’t mean that he had to.  Something had to be really wrong. Careful not to move the door Patrick peeked in, but he didn’t see anyone inside.

“Andy,” Patrick whispered as he turned around.  When he did he was met with a figure red cloak, without Andy anywhere to be seen.

“Dema welcomes you.” The cloaked figure said in a tone like a serial killer who was preparing to claim their next victim.

“Where’s my friend?” Patrick asked loudly hoping that someone nearby would hear him.

“Which one?” The figure asked with a hint of laughter.  “Sleeping Beauty or Silent Killer?”

“Who are you?” Patrick demanded.

“I am a Niner,” the figure said pushing back her hood.  Her long dark hair was braided and resting on her shoulder.  “We don’t have names, for we do not need them. Nico guides us and allows to live freely in Dema, and in return, we give ourselves over completely to him.  Your camp is beautiful.”

“What are you doing here?”  Patrick asked raising his voice, begging Pete to wake up.

“Nico only wants to grow his family,” the girl smiled at Patrick and tilted her head.  “So we are here to find him the best new family members, and let all the rest perish. Once the weak are cleared out, and the strong groomed to his likings we will make this place our second home.  Like the British empire, the sun will never set on Nico’s Dema.”

Patrick started to move away from the door, and the girl moving with him.  If she continued this whole following Patrick’s steps he could get back to the room with no problem.  He just needed to distract her enough.

“Where did Andy go?” Patrick asked again.

“Just down the hall, no need to worry.” Her voice sent shivers down Patrick's spine.  The way she was speaking was like a possessed female lead in some predictable horror film.  “He’s safe, he is strong, and Nico saves the strong from the weak.”

“And Pete?” Patrick asked only because she had mentioned him.

“In his office,” the girl nodded to the door of Commander Hoppus’s office, which meant she was talking about Hoppus.  Maybe Pete was still safe, and out of the clutches of the Niners.

“How’d you get in?” Patrick practically shouted.

 

***

 

_Pete watched as the door to his bedroom opened slowly, and for the first time he was inside the room, and someone else was opening the door.  At first, Pete couldn’t make out who was standing in the doorway, but he could sense the familiarity that radiated from this person._

_“Who are you?” Pete asked the person._

_“It’s me Pete,” the voice was a mixture of all the voices Pete could actually identify.  It was part him mom, his dad, Andy, Joe, Patrick, Brendon, Hayley, Marie, and Mikey. They all melded together, but one was trying to break free from the rest, and he wasn’t sure which one._

_“What are you doing here?” Pete stood up from his bed, and it disappeared from the room._

_“You brought me here,” Mikey answered stepping into the room leaving behind everyone else Pete had heard.  He shut the door behind him and smiled at Pete. “Where did Andy go?”_

_“I don’t know.” Pete shook his head confused._

_“And Pete?” Mikey asked his head gripping the doorknob tightly._

_“Mikey, I’m right here,” Pete said taking a step towards him confused._

_“How’d you get in?” And suddenly Pete’s room wasn’t his own.  It was one he hadn’t seen before, but there was a picture of Mikey and a blurred figure on the bedside table.  Maybe it was Mikey’s room. When Pete didn’t answer fast enough Mikey asked again, louder this time. “How did you get in here?”  It sounded harsh and angry._

Angry enough to wake Pete up.  At first, he was disoriented, his dream had given him whiplash with its quick change of setting, and waking up only made it worse.  He sat up slowly, trying to blink away the confusion. The dream made no sense, but at least it had Mikey in it. With that thought in mind, Pete turned to look at Mikey, only to realize he wasn’t there.

Panicked, Pete sprung to his feet.

“Patrick, Andy wake up, Mikey’s gone.” Pete whisper shouted.  When neither of them responder, he stepped on his bed to get Patrick’s attention, but his bed was empty.  Worried, he checked Andy’s bed too only to find it empty as well. That’s when he heard it.

“Answer me,” it was Patrick, “how did you get in here?”

“We herded our wayward sheep in this direction, hoping they’d seek shelter from the shepherd.” A girl’s voice drifted down the hallway.  “Two well-guided souls let them in your pasture, through your fences fracture. We laid in wait until the moon was at its prime before we started our great capture.”

Pete stuffed his hand into his front right pocket and pulled out the key to the safe.  He quietly hurried to it, his hands shaking as he tried to align the key and the lock. Once he got it open he grabbed the closest shotgun, but he didn’t miss the fact that one was already gone.  He didn’t have time to worry about that, not with Patrick’s life on the line. Stepping into the hallway he saw Patrick looking right at him.

“What are you talking about?” Patrick asked, his eyes not leaving Pete.  In fear for his best friend’s life, Pete lifted the shotgun and lined it up with the girl’s head.  And that’s when he noticed the two larger figures sneaking up behind Patrick.

“Behind you!” Pete called out, blowing his own cover.  He didn’t have time to think as he flicked the safety off and pulled the trigger.  But nothing happened. The gun wasn’t loaded. The two larger figures moved into action first, one tackling Patrick harshly to the ground and the other running full speed towards Pete.

“Go, Pete, go!” Patrick called out in desperation.

“I can’t leave you,” Pete said feeling his breathing go shallow.  He prepared to fight this guy running at him.

“Don’t be stupid, go, warn everyone else! I’ll be fine,” as if to prove his point Patrick threw his elbow back connecting with his attacker's nose.

“Oh it is a glorious night for Dema,” the girl lifted her arms, “we are growing!”

“Go!” Patrick called out again.  And even though it killed Pete to do so, he went.


	10. Chapter 10

Before the zombie apocalypse had started Sweet Pea would bark at anything she thought might hurt Frank.  Children playing in the street, squirrels, the sound of band practice coming from the basement, even Gerard.  Despite it being slightly annoying, Frank only found the barking to be sweet since he knew it was her way of protecting him from things she found scary herself.  But that changed when the world did. It only took a couple incidences for her to see that barking could make matters worse. So when Frank heard her barking he knew something was completely wrong.

It was a quiet bark, like she was avoiding calling attention to Frank, but was didn’t know how else to wake him.  When he opened his eyes he saw her sitting by the opening of the tent, like she was ready to attack.

“Sweet Pea,” Frank called to her, “What is it, girl?”  Just as he asked he started to smell the scent of burning wood.  As he got on his knees to leave the tent he heard the first scream.  It was brutal, and most definitely belonged to a younger girl. The sound shocked Frank to his very core.  

“Sweet Pea, come,” Frank called out.  But instead of listening, she stood guard of the tent’s entrance.  Her hair was standing up and a low growl was coming out at as a steady stream.  A bark slipped out when a shadow was casted on the tent. Suddenly someone forced themself inside the tent earning a nasty bite on the hand from Sweet Pea.

“Fucking dogs,” the stranger howled.  “You and your mangy mutt will be punished for this in Dema.”  The man grabbed Sweet Pea and handed her to someone outside the tent.  The sounds of her pained barks and attempt to escape filled Frank’s ears and broke his heart.  Leaping into action he dove at the intruder with his arms outstretched, hands ready to wrap around his throat.  

The man had no problem deflecting Frank’s advancement.  And with an abundance of grace, he put Frank into a headlock.

“A dog attacks on instinct without a plan,” the man whispered in Frank’s ear.  “A cat calculates its actions and has no problem catching its prey. Welcome to Dema, we’ll make a cat out of you.”

 

***

 

Brendon couldn’t sleep, so he had snuck out of the orphan boy’s tent to see if Sarah was awake too.  Her family was one of the lucky ones, still together, still alive, something Brendon envied. Navigating the tents was hard at night, but he had snuck out so many times to find Sarah’s that he was starting to get the hang of it.  Something felt different that night. The air was tinged with the scent of smoke, and it felt charged with some kind of energy like the calm before a storm. 

It was pitch black out but he could still see the figure outside of Sarah’s family’s tent.  He stopped dead in his tracks trying to see what was going on.

“Don’t hurt her please,” Brendon could hear Sarah’s father plead.  “She’s sick,” Brendon remembered Sarah telling him how before this all started her mother had just been told that her breast cancer had come back, but they didn’t tell anyone in the camp in fear that they’d be turned away, but everyone knew something was wrong just from how sickly Sarah’s mother looked.  Maybe this was someone from camp, but why would they do such a thing?

“Dema does not allow the weak to hold back the strong,” the figure said.  Dema, Brendon recognized that word as the name of the camp those crazy people had come from.  A larger figure emerged from the tent holding Sarah’s mother up against him. His arm was around her throat, and her hands were desperately trying to fight against him.

“Mom!” Brendon heard Sarah call out in desperation.  But the figure that was standing outside the tent originally had already taken a knife and plunged it right in the space between Sarah’s mom’s eyes.  The sound made Brendon double over, but the noise that followed was one he wished he’d never have to hear again.

Sarah screaming.

 

***

 

“Joe,” Marie said with a quiver in her voice.  That terrified twinge was what Joe noticed first, the second was that Marie was no longer by his side.  He looked up to see her being held with her hands behind her back by a man in a red cloak.

“Get your hands off of her you bastard,” Joe growled lunging for the man’s legs, but he simply stepped out of the way.  Joe fell flat on his stomach, and before he could get back up a boot dug into his back pinning him to the ground.

“Please don’t hurt him,” Marie was crying, Joe could hear it and it only fueled his anger.

“Dema does not harm the strong,” a female voice said as a third figure pushed her way into the tent.  “Dema saves the strong from the weak. Tell me little lamb, what is it that makes you weak.” Joe watched as the girl in the red cloak approached Marie, flipping a tiny blade around like it was a baton.

“If you touch her,” Joe gasped as the booted foot push down harder, “I’ll gut you.”

“So she is your weakness,” the girl smiled at Joe turning her attention towards him.  “Tell me, is she your love?”

“Fuck you,” Joe spit.  The girl shrugged her shoulders and slashed the knife across Marie’s left cheek.  “I’ll kill you, you bitch!” Using the adrenaline that had started to acquire, Joe pushed himself up knocking the person who had him pressed against the ground off balance.

“Ah, ah, ah,” the girl said waving the knife around.  “I wouldn’t try anything if I were you. You have no leverage in this fight, but we do.”  When the girl pointed her knife at Marie’s stomach Joe went completely still. His eyes drifting up from the knife to meet Marie’s.  Those pale blue eyes that Joe was so used to only being filled love were now overflowing with her fear, pain, and tears. In the last few hours the two of them had seen their future together, and although it wasn’t ideal, it was something they both agreed to wanting.  But now someone was threatening that future, and they were back to being hopeless and powerless in such dark times.

“What do you want?” Joe asked, his eyes staying with Marie.  He wouldn’t look away, it was his way of telling her that he wasn’t going anywhere without her.

The girl in the cloak smiled like she had won, but kept the knife in its place.

“Oh lion cub, it isn’t about what I want,” she laughed a little like this was all some joke that was amusing to her.  “No, this is about what Nico  _ needs _ to save us all.”

“You’re with that batshit crazy, Nico guy?” Joe asked.  And instantly regretted it when the girl lashed out again leaving a new trail of blood along Marie’s left jawline.  

“Nico is not crazy,” the girl gritted through her teeth.  “He is our savior.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Joe held his hands up.  But he wasn’t talking to this girl in the cloak he was talking to Marie.  She was whimpering from the pain, and as the tears mixed with the blood on her chin she nodded her head telling him that she was fine.  But he could see very clearly that she wasn’t.

“Lucky for you Dema allows second chances,” the girl smiled.  “You’ll be the perfect warrior for Nico’s army. And you,” she turned towards Marie, “will be a gorgeous new addition to his beautiful collection of wives.  But first, we must get rid of the indiscretion that lies inside of you.” 

Joe couldn’t move fast enough, the female Niner had thrust the knife into Marie’s lower abdomen.  The future they were so eager to accept, despite its risks, washed away with the sounds of their screams and the thickness of Marie’s blood.

 

***

 

Hayley was working the night shift in the medic tent, and she hated it.  The night shift was the worst because it usually meant she was left alone with the sick and injured and one other sucker who had allowed themselves to be dragged into the position of working as a medic.  But since there were no patients, it meant she was all alone, in case there was a late night medical emergency. So what it really meant was that she had to force herself to stay awake in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep.  Sometimes the noises she heard would spook her, so she’d hum songs to herself.

When she heard what sounded like a scream she began singing a song she wrote a while again.  It was the tale of her parents falling out of love, and how she learned from them to be cynical when it came to love until she met the love of her life.  Then there was what sounded like a dog barking, but she knew the only dog in camp was Sweet Pea and that Sweet Pea never barked, so she told herself it was a wolf howling somewhere outside the fence.  The thought didn’t help much. So she started to sing louder to herself, starting the song from the beginning.

“When I was younger, I saw my daddy cry and curse at the wind,” she closed her eyes and pictured an empty pasture of flowers and her father standing in the middle of it.  She could feel her nerves calming.

“You have a beautiful voice,” An almost soothing voice said causing Hayley to jump in surprise.  When she opened her eyes she heard a pair of screams, this time a male and woman screaming together, she could hear the pain and loss woven into it.  And her attention only lasted on that for a second when she finally registered the odd person standing in front of her.

“Who are you?” Hayley asked standing up from the chair she was in and took a step back.   The person before her was wearing a hooded red cloak that covered his features.

“A humble Niner,” the man replied, making no move to get closer to Hayley who was backing further away from him.  He stood unwavering with his arms crossed in front of him.

“What do you want?” Hayley asked bumping into a medical tray.  Trying to be subtle she reached behind her and found a scalpel.  Grabbing it carefully she slid it up her sleeve careful not to knick herself with the blade.  

“In this world, there is no longer room for want and desire,” the man said pushing back his hood.  Hayley gasped when she saw what his hood had been hiding. There were so many scars, bruises, and a few fresh cuts that she wasn’t sure how he wasn’t in complete agony.  “There is only room for needs and survival.”

“Are you alright?” Hayley asked feigning concern hoping that compassion would help her out.  “I can clean your wounds for you.”

“How sweet,” the man smiled.  “However, I don’t require any medical assistance.”

“Then what is it that you require exactly?” Hayley asked gripping the scalpel tighter.

“You, my dear,” but the man still didn’t move any closer.  “Nico would love to have you as a wife.”

“I’m not a believer of marriage,” Hayley shrugged her shoulders, “sorry.  Tell Nico, I’m flattered but I’ll decline his proposal.” She smiled sweetly and backed even further away.  

“You have no say,” the man said finally lunging at her.  Hayley waited until he was close enough to pull out her short blade.  His hands were so close to grabbing her when Hayley pushed the scalpel into the guy’s side.  The sharp pain shocked him enough to stumble backward, giving Hayley the chance to run past him.  She was so close to the entrance of the tent when she turned to see if the man was following her. He wasn’t because he was too busy pulling the scalpel out of his side.  When she turned back around her body collided with someone else’s. It was another cloaked figure, but this one wasn’t as subtle. Before Hayley could defend herself the figure threw a punch that knocked Hayley off her feet.

On her way down she could hear more screams fill the camp she had been calling home, but everything was drowned out by the darkness that came with her head colliding with the ground.

 

***

 

It had been hours since they had fled the camp, and they hadn’t stopped moving.  Mikey knew if he did, that Pete would have no trouble finding him, and dragging himself into the mess Mikey had created.  Looking over his shoulder he saw Tyler’s eyes blinking rapidly like was trying to keep them open, and beyond Tyler, he saw Josh doing the same.  Looking around Mikey decided it was a good enough place to stop, there was just enough cover to keep them out of sight, but not too much that would keep them from seeing any approaching threats plus it was a decent distance from camp.

“Okay, we’re going to take a break,” Mikey said leading them to the base of a rather large tree.  “You two get some sleep, I’ll keep watch.”

“We can’t,” Tyler yawned as he unhooked his finger from Mikey’s belt loop.

“Can’t what?” Mikey asked as he pointed at the ground silently telling them to sit.  Tyler and Josh both sat down with their backs against the tree.

“Make you keep watch,” Tyler rubbed his eyes trying to make the exhaustion go away.

“It’s fine,” Mikey told him, “I’m used to it.  Besides if you two are tired then we’ll never find my brother.”  But before Mikey could even finish talking Tyler had fallen asleep, his head resting on Josh’s shoulder.  Now that he was sitting Josh didn’t look so tired anymore.

“Thank you,” Josh whispered barely audibly.

“For what?” Mikey stayed standing, knowing that if he sat down he’d probably fall asleep too.  And with two threats after them sleeping wasn’t an option for Mikey.

“Believing us,” Josh told him.  “Not many people would have, and because of that we’d probably be dead right now if it weren’t you.”

Mikey had no idea how to respond to that.  You’re welcome felt wrong, and no problem was a lie.  So instead he asked, “How old are you two?”

“Fifteen,” Josh answered resting his head against Tyler’s.  Mikey didn’t say anything but instead let Josh fall asleep. In the silence, Mikey was left alone with his thoughts.  Thoughts that he had no control over. They were unorganized and came in no particular pattern. But two major themes that his mind was constantly battling over were Pete and Gerard.

One moment he was thinking about how much he wished he could have stolen an Oreo from Jack’s stash and the next he was wondering about how Gerard was doing.  If he was alive, or undead. But before he could even finish that thought he found himself wondering if Pete was awake yet, and if he was, was angry with Mikey for leaving?  Then he thought of his mother and father, and how they were going to plan a renewal of their wedding vows for their next anniversary because of how terribly their wedding had gone.  And Pete snuck back in, and Mikey wondered if Joe would ever forgive Pete, or if Pete would ever forgive himself. But then Gerard was back in his mind, this time the memory of Gerard coming out to him while holding Frank’s hand.  

The sound of footsteps nearby pulled Mikey out of his head.  The steps were slow and almost unnoticeable. Although Mikey wanted to convince himself that these footsteps were nothing, he couldn’t because if he did that he’d be opening himself, Tyler and Josh up to vulnerability.  A misstep caused a twig to snap, waking Tyler and Josh up.

“What’s going on?” Josh asked groggily.

“Nothing, just someone walking,” Mikey answered.

“It could be the Niners,” Tyler said panicked standing up quickly.

“It’s okay, I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Mikey said moving closer to them hoping to bring them a small comfort.  The three of them fell into silence, waiting to see what would happen next. Another twig snap caused Tyler to bump into Mikey.

“Where are the lost sheep?” A voice called out.  Mikey looked at Tyler and Josh pressing a finger to his lips.  He could move, and risk making noise, or stay still hoping whoever was out there would pass by.  Before he could decide though a flashlight was shining on them. Mikey blinked in surprise, he didn’t think anyone rationed batteries.  Then again this was Nico and his crazed batch of followers the Niners. “There they are. I am here to bring you back home, to Dema.”

“They’re not going back,” Mikey said putting himself between the man with the flashlight and the boys.  “You have no right to take them back to that hellhole.”

“Why of course I do, my boy, for I am Nico.”  Nico lifted his arms out like he was preaching a sermon on a Sunday morning to an eager congregation.  “I have lent these boys my resources, allowed them a place in my kingdom, gave them the chance to prove themselves, and gave their mothers the highest honor any woman could dream of having.  In return, I own their souls, and now that they have done their job, they will come home.”

“What job?” Mikey asked looking back at Tyler and Josh who had huddled together and were now shaking.  Tyler’s tears shone in the artificial light while Josh’s anger settled deep into the features of his young face.

“When they escaped we kept them safe, and herded them in direction of that camp.” Nico smiled at Mikey as if he were telling Mikey a wonderful story of a kingdom built on magic, rather than a kingdom built on evil.  “We watched, hoping to find an alternative entrance into the camp, or perhaps a weakness in its defenses so we could capture the camp and make it our own. And thanks to you, and that other boy we found the perfect way in.  And all of this was because of those two behind you. Normally we would punish them for their indiscretion, but since they helped our family grow tonight, we’ll let them live in Dema as long as they don’t betray us again.”

“You son of a bitch,” Mikey said pulling his pistol out of his waistband and aiming it at Nico.  “I’ll shoot you if you don’t call off your insane followers.” Mikey could hardly breathe. His mind was spinning, and his heart racing.  The camp he had just left was under siege, and it was his fault. Pete was in danger, along with Frank and everyone else he had just met. All of those people who had welcomed with open arms were in danger because he had convinced Pete to let Tyler and Josh in even though he, himself, had doubts about doing so.  But when he looked back at the two of them he felt guilty for even thinking about leaving them out there to fend for themselves. They were just trying to survive like everybody else. And then there was Gerard, Mikey had finally gotten back on track to find his brother and he hadn’t even gotten close. At that moment, more than ever, he wished that Gerard was by his side, giving him guidance.

Nico could see the hesitation on Mikey’s face and took a step forward, and when he did Mikey stuck his arm up aiming the barrel of the gun directly at Nico’s forehead.

“You won’t touch them,” Mikey hissed.

“Tell me, what is it that you want?” Nico asked arms still spread wide.  “If it’s a girl, we have many, enough that I’d be willing to share with you.  If it’s power, I will make you my right-hand man. If it’s peace, I will allow you a place of tranquility in my kingdom.  If it’s to walk alone in zombie-infested lands, I will let you walk away. After all, I do owe you a great deal of gratitude for your help, however, those two will come with me no matter what you choose.”

Mikey’s hand wasn’t steady like it usually was when aiming a gun.  His anger was overpowering, as he jabbed the gun in Nico’s direction.

“I want none of that,” Mikey spat.  “If I was getting what I wanted everything would go back to the way it was before, and unless you can make that happen, you can fuck off and go back to your so-called kingdom.  You won’t take Tyler and Josh back with you. I won’t let you.”

“I was afraid you would disregard my kindness,” Nico shook his head stepping closer to Mikey.  This time Mikey took a step back reaching out his free arm to block Nico from Tyler and Josh. “I rarely leave my kingdom child, unless I have a special reason to, but when I do leave I do not do so alone.”

At that moment Mikey heard at least three more pairs of feet move in front of them.  In response, Tyler whimpered behind Mikey like a dog that had been abused, and after finally escaping had been cornered by the dog catcher once again.  It simultaneously broke Mikey’s heart and made his blood boil with anger all over again.

“Just because there’s more than just you, doesn’t mean I won’t shoot you,” Mikey said as he turned the safety off.  

“I know you won’t, you’re still holding onto your humanity,” Nico shrugged.  “That is why you are one of the weak.”

“I’m not weak,” Mikey hissed firing the gun.  The bullet grazed Nico’s ear, causing him to lose second for a moment.  Moving as fast as he could Mikey pushed Tyler and Josh away from Nico and the Niners.  “Come on, we’ve got to run.”

Mikey kept pushing Tyler and Josh, and even though he knew he could outrun them he purposely stayed behind them.  He wasn’t about to abandon them now. He could see the way that Tyler’s legs were shaking as they ran, and the way Josh was struggling with not tripping over the debris on the forest floor.  With a quick glance over his shoulder, Mikey saw five people chasing after them, and they were all wearing red cloaks that matched the one Nico was wearing.

“You can not escape Dema!” Nico screamed after them, but he wasn’t following.  “You can not hide from my Niners!”

“We should turn ourselves in,” Tyler wheezed trying to catch his breath.  “If we do, we can save Mikey.”

“Shut up,” Mikey said.  “Keep running, you’re not going back there.  I won’t let you.”

“You’ve done too much for us,” Josh gasped.  “You need to go help your friends.”

“I said shut up,” Mikey hissed, pushing them both slightly.  “Hurry, hook a sharp right.” Tyler and Josh listened taking a sharp right, and when Mikey looked over his shoulder he noticed that two of the Niners were gaining on them, while the other three were struggling running in their cloaks.  Thanks to the Niners idiotic dress code they were having a hard time keeping up with the three boys, even though it looked like Tyler’s legs were about to give out. “We need to move faster. If we just gain enough distance, we can lose them.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Tyler said.

“Yes you can,” Josh said grabbing Tyler’s arm.  Josh picked up the pace, dragging Tyler along with him.  Impressed, Mikey sped up too. He checked over his shoulder again and noticed that there was some more distance between them and Niners, one of the two that was closer had fallen to ground either because he tripped over his cloak or something on the ground.  

“Go right again,” Mikey told them and they did so with ease.  While they ran Josh kept telling Tyler that he could do it, that he just had to shake the Niners and then they could all rest.  Mikey kept checking over his shoulder, but that last Niner was determined and unwavering in the pursuit. Mikey could only think of one thing to slow this last one down, but he wasn’t sure he could actually go through with it.  But then he looked back at Tyler and Josh who were running with whatever energy they could possibly muster, and he knew he had no choice. The bullet didn’t have to fly with the intent to kill, all it had to do was injure.

Mikey planted his feet and took aim at the Niner’s foot.  As he shot, he closed his eyes, unable to watch his bullet pierce the flesh of a living human.  When he heard the scream of agony, he opened his eyes again and turned back towards Tyler and Josh.  They were still running, so Mikey hurried to close the distance.

“We’ve lost them,” Mikey huffed, “but we need to keep going until we see the fence.”

Josh nodded and continued to pull Tyler along.  Please let them be okay, Mikey thought to himself as he chased down the smell of smoke that was in the air.  He saw the rising flames before he saw the fence, and his heart plummeted as he let himself believe that the fire had been created to consume The Last of the Real Ones.  


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it's been a while but this is a pretty thicc chapter (it's 18 pages on Google Docs) so hopefully, that makes up for it.
> 
> ~TwentySixNine
> 
> (Also I'm on Twitter @TwentySix_Nine if you want to check that out)

When Pete got outside, the sight that was before him was like a sucker punch to the gut, the kind that doubled the victim over in pain, leaving him gasping for air, and wishing more than anything that he had prepared better for the blow.  But he powered through it and kept running. Everywhere he looked there were red cloaks and people he had been protecting for months in pain. He rounded the building and went straight for the padlock, and he noticed that the lock wasn’t even fully locked anymore.  So when he opened the bilco doors and found it empty he wasn’t surprised. With all that was going on, he hoped that Mikey had taken Tyler and Josh with him, and it that it wasn’t the other way around.

Quickly Pete pressed himself against the back of the building when he heard his pursuer’s footsteps nearing.  Even though the gun wasn’t loaded, he knew he could still utilize it as a weapon. He lifted it, waiting until the red cloak rounded the corner.

When the red cloak came around the corner Pete stepped a little bit away from the wall and swung the gun as hard as he could like he was at batting practice.  It connected with the man’s head with a crack. As the red cloak stumbled backward towards the open bilco doors Pete gave him an extra shove so that he fell in, all the way to the bottom.  Ignoring the combination of cracking and groaning, Pete turned towards the sound of fast approaching footsteps and swung again. He didn’t stop to think that maybe it wasn’t a red cloak, so when he saw the red fabric, he felt a wave of relief wash over him, but it didn’t last long.  Because this one was ready for Pete, and dodged the shotgun, even going as far as grabbing ahold of it.

“Give up, you’re greatly outnumbered,” to Pete’s surprise the person who had spoken was the girl from inside.  After what Pete had heard about Nico’s bigoted system he didn’t expect Nico to send women out into a battle, that he only allowed them out in the field as a means of distraction.  But it didn’t matter, male or female, she was still a threat to the life Pete was building in this camp and he wouldn’t stop until she did.

Pete didn’t even grace her with a response, but instead, he did a sweeping kick that knocked her off her feet, her grip slipping from the gun.  She landed on her back but quickly reached out for Pete’s legs. She wrapped both her arms around his legs and used her body weight to push him to the ground.  Pete fell harshly to the ground, losing the gun in the fall, and before he knew it this girl was straddling his hips and pinning his hands above his head. Her long dark braid nearly brushed against the side of Pete’s face.  The girl wasn’t heavy, but she seemed to know what she was doing because Pete couldn’t get out of her grip.

“You are one of the ones my father would like to thank,” the girl smiled.

“Thank me for what?” Pete asked as he tried to think back on the few karate lessons he had taken as a kid.  They did a little groundwork, but he couldn’t conjure the solution to this problem he was in. He knew there was something to do with his foot and her leg.

“For showing us the way in,” the girl looked down at Pete with a strange look in her icy blue eyes.  “He’s out there now, bringing back our lost sheep and your partner in crime. The two of you will be given anything you could possibly want, and he will grant you the honor of being a part of the breeding circuit.   _And_ as his daughter, you and I will be spending a great deal of time together.  As the first daughter, I was given the choice between you and the other one, and I chose you.”  Using one hand the girl caressed Pete’s face, freeing one of Pete’s hands.

“Lucky me,” Pete whispered back hoping to distract her enough that she’d let go of his other arm.  “Not only will I be able to join Dema, but I get to be with the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”  The girl’s face flushed as she heard the compliment fall from Pete’s lips like an angel singing to her directly from heaven.  But to Pete’s disdain, her other hand stayed where it was pinning his other arm down. For all, he knew this was the best opportunity he would have to get free.  

Moving fast Pete swung his arm with as much force as he could muster against her inside of the left elbow, causing her arm to give out.  While he did that, he hooked his left foot around her left leg. Without her left arm supporting her, and her left leg trapped Pete was able to use his hips to knock her off balance.  As she was falling, Pete rolled with her, pinning her down instead. Before she could trap him again by wrapping her legs around his waist he pushed himself up and backed away from her.  She wasn’t far away from the bilco doors if he could get her down there along with the first red cloak he could lock the doors and go help everyone else.

“I will not let you escape,” the girl said with anger as she got to her feet.  In one swift motion, she pulled off her red cloak. Underneath it, she was clothed in all black, but the short sleeved shirt she was wearing revealed arms covered in an insane amount of scars.  Just for a moment, Pete felt bad for this girl, until she pulled a gun from her waistband and aligned the barrel with Pete’s chest. Before she could even get the safety off, Pete charged at her, grabbing for the pistol in her hand.  With his hands wrapped around the barrel, and her unwillingness to let go Pete lifted her arm, turned underneath it, and brought her elbow down hard on his shoulder. A crack sounded as her elbow met Pete’s shoulder, bending in the wrong way, and the gun slipped out of her hand.  Putting distance between the two of them, Pete watched as she clutched her elbow close to her chest. Turning the safety off, Pete shot at the ground close enough to her feet that she reeled back. He did it twice more before she fell backward down the stairs. With a swiftness he didn’t know he had, Pete slammed the bilco doors closed and locked them.  But this small victory meant nothing to him, not with all of the chaos that was surrounding him inside the camp.

 

***

 

When Mikey finally saw the fence, he felt a little relief seeing that the entire camp wasn’t up in flames like he had originally thought, but that relief was short lived when the sounds of screaming finally resonated.  Once they made it to the fence Tyler and Josh shared a look before looking at Mikey.

“We’re sorry, we didn’t know,” Tyler said, breathing heavily.

“It’s not your fault,” Mikey muttered, but what he didn’t say was that this was actually his fault.  He should’ve convinced Pete to talk to Commander Hoppus, instead of getting him to sneak them in. All of this was on him.  “Come on the camp’s entrance is down that way.” Mikey took the lead this time, too anxious to let Tyler and Josh run ahead of him.  

When they got to the front, he wasn’t surprised to see that there was no one there to let them in, but rather three cloaked figures with their backs toward the entrance.  They weren’t worried about anyone getting in, but rather people getting out.

“Give me the shotgun,” Mikey said to Josh who handed the gun over without a single ounce of hesitation.  Setting down his bat and putting the pistol in his waistband Mikey tried to think of the best way to do this.  He could shoot the one in the middle first, with the hopes that the other two would move in closer to help make it easier to shoot all three of them.  Or he could shoot the one on the right, and if he did that the other two might move that way, and he’d only have to shoot one because he could sneak past them.  His anger was pushing him to shoot all three, saying that they more than deserved it, but Mikey shook that off. If shooting the one on the right didn’t work the way he hoped it would, he would shoot the other two.  “Stay here.”

“We can help you,” Tyler said picking up Mikey’s baseball bat.

“We can’t just sit here and let you do all of the work,” Josh agreed with Tyler.

“You’ll slow me down,” Mikey countered.

“No we won’t,” Tyler argued.  “Besides the plan of splitting up doesn’t really seem to work for you.”  Josh hit Tyler for his comment when a flash of guilt lit up on Mikey’s features.  But Mikey didn’t have time for guilt, or time to argue with Tyler and Josh.

“Whatever, just stay quiet and close by,” Mikey said before slipping into the camp’s entrance.  The gate that kept intruders out wasn’t locked because someone had broken the lock that was once in place.  Begging whatever force it was that decided fate to keep the gate silent Mikey pushed it open just enough for him and the two boys to sneak in.  Now that they were technically inside all they had to do was get past those red cloaks, before they could really start to help. Lining up the shot Mikey took a deep breath before he shot.  The bullet was meant for the shoulder, but just after Mikey pulled the trigger the figure moved, causing the bullet to pierce his heart.

“Fuck,” Mikey hissed as the red cloak collapsed to the ground.  As Mikey had anticipated the other two, rushed to the first one’s aid.  The first one’s blood ran like a river of red.

“Where was he shot?” One of the other two asked.

“Go,” Mikey said panicked.  “We gotta get out of here, he’s about to turn.”

“What?” Tyler asked backing towards the gate.

“He moved, my shot hit him in the chest.  If he dies, he turns.” Mikey grabbed Tyler and pushed him in the direction of the camp.  “Come on.” And just as Mikey got Tyler and Josh to move his bullet caused it’s target to take its last breath.

“I can’t find the wound,” the third cloaked being said.  “I don’t feel a pulse either.” Before either of the other two red cloaks could try to take the zombie out, he was already devouring the one nearest to him.

“Keep going, I need to put them down.”  Mikey pushed Tyler and Josh to keep going, and in their fear, they did.  Tyler kept Mikey’s bat in case he needed a form of protection.

“We should find Pete, tell him that Mikey needs help,” Josh told Tyler.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Tyler responded.  “I think that’s the place we were.” Tyler pointed to a building that looked vaguely familiar.  Without a single word, Josh grabbed Tyler’s wrist and started to pull him towards it. They both ran as fast as they could, dodging the Niners.  Most of the Niners were preoccupied anyway, pulling people out of their tents, and determining whether they were strong or weak. Or in other words, who would live and who would die.

The flames of the fire that the Niners had started in the center of camp casted an eerie red light over the entire camp.   _Fire is cleansing, and we will douse the impure in its flames in order to rid them of their sins_ , Tyler and Josh had both heard Nico say these words many times before the Sermon of Sacrifice, and as they watched a few Niners tend to the fire their stomachs twisted in fear of what would come next.

“We can warn Pete,” Josh said trying to get Tyler to focus on running and running only.  Josh picked up the pace, pulling Tyler along with him. For once in his life Josh was glad his parents had gotten him into track, it was their idea of getting him to branch out to other people because they worried about him having only Tyler as a friend.  It didn’t work, but now he was happy because if he hadn’t he was sure he wouldn’t be alive right now. Tyler, on the other hand, was running on pure adrenaline, and at some point, he would run out, he just hoped it was after all of this was over.

The building wasn’t much further away, and there was a lone figure jogging alongside it.  Without the flames, there wouldn’t have been any way for Tyler and Josh make out the familiar features, let alone see Pete.  But once they could see clearly that it was him Josh started pulling Tyler even faster.

“Pete!” Tyler called out, afraid that if they didn’t get his attention they’d lose him in the sea of chaos.  But Pete didn’t seem to hear him, so he called out again, “Pete!”

Tyler and Josh watched as Pete stopped and turned in their direction.  But they didn’t stop moving toward him. For a moment it didn’t seem like Pete knew who was calling out to him, but when he did he started in their direction.  As the three of them closed the distance Tyler and Josh noticed the look of betrayal on Pete’s face. He thought this was their fault, and that they had set them up from the beginning.  Suddenly afraid that Pete might hurt them, Tyler and Josh started to back away.

“Where is he?” Pete shouted at them, anger resonating in his tone.  Neither of them could speak, they were too afraid of the anger that was being directed towards them.  What little trust they had put in Pete was slowly dissipating with each angry footstep in their direction.  But just as Pete was about to close in on them someone dove in front of them.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Mikey asked Pete with more anger than Pete had been directing at Tyler and Josh seconds ago, and he even pushed Pete back a little.  Around Mikey’s shoulders, Tyler and Josh could see the look of relief that settled over Pete’s features once Mikey was in his sights.

“You’re okay.” Pete blinked, and without thinking about what Mikey would do or say he pulled Mikey into a tight hug.  Pete expected Mikey to pull away, or at least stiffen up, but instead, Mikey hugged him back without an ounce of hesitation.  Their bodies were flushed against each other. Pete resisted the urge to nuzzle his face into Mikey’s neck, but he did rest his chin on Mikey’s shoulder and let his eyes close.  At least one of his people were safe.

“And you’re okay,” Mikey sighed, squeezing Pete tight before pulling back.  “But seriously, what the fuck were you doing?” Mikey asked turning his anger back on and crossing his arms over his chest.  There was so much he wanted to say to Pete, and most of it began and ended with _I’m sorry_.

“T-they were gone, and you were gone,” Pete said pointing at Tyler and Josh.  “And these lunatics were everywhere, but then Tyler and Josh were right there, without you and I thought that they set us up.  I thought they got you.” Mikey blinked in surprise at the raw emotion in Pete’s voice when he told Mikey that he thought Mikey had been captured.  But he didn’t comment on it, or the hug that Pete had initiated, but if he was being honest he appreciated both.

“Well that’s not the case,” Mikey said.  “I’ll explain it later. Right now, we need to do something before it’s too late.”  Mikey looked back at Tyler and Josh who were still shaken by Pete’s anger. He gave them a soft, half-hearted smile, before turning back to Pete.  Mikey tilted his head in their direction ever so slightly, and Pete understood right away.

“I’m sorry,” Pete said, but he only half meant it.  He didn’t trust them fully, even if it seemed like Mikey had no problem placing his faith in them.  And it was clear that they didn’t trust him either, especially when they didn’t even acknowledge his apology.

“What about the zombies?” Tyler asked Mikey.

“I took care of it, and the good news is that the front gate isn’t being guarded anymore, so we can get people out through two different exits.”  Mikey looked around trying to see where the four of them could even start. They were beyond outnumbered, and Mikey knew there were still more Niners outside, and that Nico was with them.  The sheer number of Nico’s ranks was shocking to him when he had been at Dema in the very beginning not many people had joined or had interest in joining.

“Where do we even start?” Pete asked looking around at the chaos.  If there weren’t so much going on, he was sure someone would have noticed the four of them standing without a Niner supervising them.

“The fire,” Josh answered even though he really didn’t want to talk to Pete, but with the crisis at hand, he couldn’t afford to be petty at that moment.

“Really? A giant lantern in the middle of camp…” Pete started to say sarcastically but didn’t get to finish.

“It’s not a lantern,” Josh snapped, “it’s how Nico makes sacrifices.  He talks about cleansing impure souls of their sins with fire and then takes those he deems weak or unworthy and I’m sure you can fill the rest in with your overactive imagination.”

Pete didn’t say anything, and neither did Mikey.  Instead, they both looked up at the flames that were desperately reaching towards the sky as if they were trying to contact the cosmos to let it know that the world had truly lost all of its humanity.  Their hearts were hammering in their chests in perfect sync, creating a beat of fear and unease as they tried to come up with something, anything to make this all stop. But it was impossible to even think of a solution when the problem itself was too large to comprehend.  It reminded Mikey of his Earth Science course, when the professor said that she wasn’t going to give specific numbers because they were just too large for any of them wrap their minds around it, only this time he had no choice, he had to wrap his mind around this whole thing and he had to fix.  Again he found himself wishing Gerard was around so he could give him guidance, or at least get Mikey to calm himself just enough to come up with even a terrible plan.

If Gerard had been with him this whole time Mikey was sure none of this would’ve happened.  They wouldn’t have gone back to the camp at all, and Mikey could go on living in an ignorant bliss of this struggle between camps.  He would be safe, and wouldn’t be in the position of having to solve the deadly problem he had created with his own horrible advice.  But as he thought this, he thought of how devastated Gerard would be if Frank was captured by Nico and taken back to Dema, because it would mean there was no chance of ever finding him.  And then he realized that Gerard would be disappointed in Mikey for even thinking like this because these were human lives he was wishing he didn’t have to save. These people had welcomed him with open arms when he had no one else to turn to and in this moment of chaos, Mikey was wishing he hadn’t met them all because the guilt he was feeling wasn’t convenient for him.    

“Do you two know anything about Nico’s daughters?” Pete asked Tyler and Josh.

“Yeah, of course,” Josh answered knowing full well that Tyler wasn’t going to.  While Josh didn’t want to answer out of pettiness, Tyler was too afraid to after seeing how quickly Pete was ready to turn on them.  “He treats them like soldiers and princesses. He’s constantly in the search of their perfect breeding partners. Why?”

“Could one of them be used as leverage?” Pete asked.

“Maybe,” Josh nodded, “I’d say you’d have a better chance if you could use both of them.  But he places a lot of importance on Amanda, the older sister, so she might give you a slight upper hand.”

“Good,” Pete motioned for the other three to follow him to the back of the building.  Before they reached the bilco doors they heard the pounding and the shouts of Nico’s oldest daughter.  “Looks like we have a slight upper hand then.”

 

***

 

Brendon kept hidden as he kept as close to Sarah and her father as possible.  Neither of them was fighting back, but rather let themselves be dragged along by the very people that had just stolen a very important part of both of their lives right before their eyes.  They were both shutting down, and losing hope, and Brendon could see each drop of hope and pain drip from the corners of Sarah’s eyes while her father shut down entirely. His face was completely devoid of emotion, and his body was entirely limp.  Seeing him that way made Brendon angry. He wasn’t fighting for Sarah as a father should, he wasn’t fighting at all. But Bredon wasn’t going to let his anger get in the way of saving Sarah’s life, he would rise above that, and get her as far away from this mess as fast he could.

Before he could even try though, a heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder and spun him around.  When he looked up he was staring into the eyes of yet another red-cloaked figure. There was something odd about this one though, he looked almost disappointed that he had Brendon in his clutches.

“You weren’t any fun to catch,” he said shaking her head.  “Well, come on, we’ll get you in line with the others.”

“Get your hand off of me,” Brendon shouted wrenching himself out of her grip.  As soon as he does so he saw something glimmer in his eyes, almost like he was having the fun he was desperately seeking out in this real-life game of capture the flag.  Brendon stumbled backwards and out of the cover of the shadows he had been using to stay hidden. When he looked back at Sarah, she was already looking in his direction. And seeing Brendon had put a little hope back into her.

“Brendon, run! Go get help!” She called out fighting against the Niner that was holding onto her.  One of her arms slipped free, and for some reason that made Brendon even more desperate to save Sarah from this mess.

“I’m not leaving you,” Brendon said shoving the Niner that was close to him and dashing towards Sarah.  Only the Niner that was before Brendon was about twice his size and barely even blinked when Brendon pushed against him.  Sarah reached out for Brendon, and just as their fingertips were about to connect, Brendon felt the crushing weight of the Niner tackling him from behind.

“No, let him go,” Sarah screamed kicking out towards the Niner’s head, but he dodged the kick just in time, so Sarah’s foot connected with Brendon’s head instead.  “Shit,” she hissed just as everything twirled into oblivion for Brendon.

 

***

 

“This is the one,” the Niner said pushing Hayley forward.  Everything was still hazy, and she couldn’t even stay on her feet.  As soon as the Niner had let go of her she had fallen on her hands and knees.  The material of the tent was covered in something wet, and warm. When she lifted her hand up it felt sticky.  Even though her head was still throbbing and her eyes weren’t focusing all that well she knew what this liquid was.  The deep red gave it away.

“Wh-what happened?” She asked sitting back on her knees, and finally, she saw Marie and Joe.  Marie’s head was in Joe’s lap, and his hands were covering her abdomen, and they were covered in blood.

“Please, Hayley save her,” Joe said completely disregarding her question altogether.  She had never seen Joe so distraught before, and that’s what sent her into motion. Even though moving made her even dizzier, she crawled over to Joe and Marie.  She was intensely aware of the Niners hovering over the three of them, but at that moment Marie’s life was the only thing that mattered.

“Joe, I need to know what happened,” Hayley asked finally sitting right in front of the couple.

“They stabbed her,” Joe said, but there wasn’t anger in his voice like Hayley would’ve expected.  No, instead there was so much pain that anger didn’t even seem to be an option of Joe in this moment.  “They killed our baby, you can’t let her die too.”

Hayley blinked at Joe.  She had no idea that Marie was pregnant, but now she understood why Joe wasn’t showing angry.

“Joe give me your shirt,” Hayley said.  When Joe lifted his hands Hayley lifted the bottom of Marie’s shirt to get a better look at the wound.  It wasn’t too deep, she could tell just from looking, but she didn’t know enough to tell whether or not the wound had actually done what it was intended to, or if it needs a more serious treatment.  Based on the amount of blood, she would say that both were more than likely.

“Here,” Joe said handing Hayley his shirt. She quickly wiped the area around the wound to clean it and saw that the wound wasn’t too big.  After she examined the wound she placed the shirt on Marie’s wound.

“Joe I need you to talk to her,” Hayley said.  Looking up she noticed the Niner’s watching and pointed at the female one, “I need you to keep pressure on the stab wound to limit the blood loss.”

“No,” the girl said stepping back.

“What do you mean no?” Hayley asked pressing down on the wound.

“Michelle does not have to answer to you,” one of the male Niners said stepping slightly in front of the female Niner.

“Okay well I need one of you to hold pressure on the wound, we don’t have time to argue,” Hayley said frustrated.

“You,” Michelle said pointing to the Niner that pushed Hayley into the tent, “help her.”

The Niner nodded his head and kneeled beside Hayley.  He took over for Hayley, and very faintly Hayley could hear Joe talking to Marea, but Marie wasn’t responding.  Quickly Hayley moved to Marie’s head. Gently she adjusted Marie’s head in Joe’s lap to make sure there was a clear path for Marie’s airway, and then she put her ear near Marie’s mouth and listened.  Joe fell silent for just a moment to make it easier for Hayley to listen for breathing. She didn’t hear anything, but to keep from alarming Joe she quickly checked Marie’s pulse. Although it was faint, it was still there.

“Joe, I need you to move back,” Joe complied, gently letting Marie’s head lay on the ground.  Hayley breathed before tilting Marie’s head back and started performing CPR.

“Come on Marie,” Joe whispered grabbing for Marie’s hand.  “Please don’t leave me like this. I need you, I can’t survive this horror show without you.  I love you, I love you big time.” With each word, Hayley felt more desperate to save Marie’s life.   _Breathe, please Marie breathe_ Hayley internally begged as she pinched Marie’s nose and released two rescue breaths.  She pulled back and restarted compressions again when Marie didn’t take the air in. Just as Hayley was about to tell Joe that there wasn’t anything she could do, she looked up and saw the desperation in his eyes.  One more time, Hayley told herself.

Joe watched Hayley.  When their eyes met something told him she was ready to give up on Marie.  But when she started going again, Joe finally started to cry. He hadn’t cried since he watched his best friend kill his parents.  Ever since that day he bottled every emotion he had with the exception of his anger. But then they got to camp, and Marie was there.  As much as he hated to admit it, they had an instant connection, one that could only be described as soul mates. He fell for her so fast, and so hard he began to let all kinds of emotions fizzle out of the bottle beside rage, but he never cried.  And now, with the woman who had given him the chance to feel all over again dying right in front of him he let tears slip from his eyes. She was all he had left, and if he lost her there was no way he would be able to go on. It just wasn’t possible.

When Hayley sat back up this time, he could hear a small gasp.  It was Marie.

“She’s breathing!” Hayley cheered, looking at Joe with a slight grin.  Before she could instruct him to do anything else he leaned over Marie and Pulled Hayley into a hug.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“I still have work to do,” Hayley answered, “I need you to make sit by her head.  Make sure she’s still breathing and that her pulse is still going. It’s faint but you can feel it.  Also, make sure her head stays tilted to make sure she can get all the air she needs.”

Soundlessly Joe let go of Marie and did as he was told.  Taking a moment to think Hayley looked at Maira. Based on the amount of blood that Marie had lost Hayley was trying to find signs of shock.  Quickly leaning over Marie, Hayley lifted her eyelids and noticed their dilation.

“I think she’s in shock.  I need a blanket!” One of the Niner’s handed Hayley a blanket.  She quickly covered Marie with it. “Okay now I need supplies from the medical tent, you keep pressure.”  Hayley stood up, swaying on her feet a little. She was about to leave when one of the Niner’s blocked her exit.

“You’re not going anywhere.” The Niner said.

“She’ll die if I don’t properly dress the wound,” Hayley retorted.  

“Go with her,” Michelle said waving her hand.  “We’ll stay here and keep an eye on these two.”

Joe looked up, and part of him was worried that maybe, just maybe Hayley was going to try to escape.  That she would leave him here with Marie dying in his arms. But then she turned back towards him.

“Watch her vitals, if she stops breathing do CPR, I’ll be back as soon as I can,” and then she was outside of the tent.  Joe closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. There was too much happening in that moment. The sounds of terror outside of the tent made him uneasy as he held Marie’s head in his lap and her hand in his own.  

“Joe,” he heard a faint whisper from Marie.  He had no idea how, but she had regained consciousness, and when he opened his eyes she was looking up at him.

“Marie,” Joe said, the taste of her name on his lips more comforting than ever before.

“Hey, don’t cry,” she smiled.  Her body was trembling now. “I’m not worth the tears.”

“Yes you are,” Joe shook his head, “you’re worth all my tears, all my heartbeats, all my breaths.  You’re worth everything.”

“You spoil me,” Maira lulled.  She sounded exhausted, but Joe knew it was best to keep her awake.

“If we met before this apocalypse you’d really know what it was like to be spoiled by me,” Joe said tracing the side of her hand with his thumb.  “I would’ve given you the entire world.”

“I don’t want the entire world,” Marie smiled up at him.  “All I want is you.”

“Well, too bad,” Joe teased even though it felt wrong to tease her in this moment.  “I’d give you the entire world, no I’d give you the entire universe, and you’d just have to deal with it.”

“Oh wow,” Marie said lifting her free hand up to touch the side of Joe’s face.  “I don’t even know what I’d do with the _entire universe_.”

“You’d figure something out, you’re amazing like that," Joe said nuzzling into Marie’s palm.

“That’s a lot of pressure,” Marie chuckled slightly and then winced.  “If you gave me the entire universe, how the hell would I ever be able to get you a good gift in return?”

“By loving me back, that’s all you ever have to do for me.” Joe turned his head and kissed Marie’s palm.

“You’re such a hypocrite Joe Trohman.” Marie smiled up at him.

“I know,” Joe answered with a smile of his own.

“You two disgust me,” Michelle yawned.  “You do realize that once the medic comes back, you’ll be separated.  The two of you have no future together, and you never did. In fact, I did you a favor killing that thing inside of her.”

“Shut up you bitch,” Marie hissed.

“Do you wish to die?” Michelle asked.

“It’s only because of Michelle’s hospitality that you’re being saved.” The male Niner, who was holding pressure on Marie’s stab wound, piped up and applied a little more pressure.  Marie winced a little but said nothing in return.

“Hey, ignore them,” Joe said trying to distract Marie and himself from the people around them.  “Tell me that story you were going to tell me before you fell asleep.”

“I-I can’t” Marie stuttered.

“What’s wrong?” Joe asked straightening up.  

“It’s just,” Marie choked back tears, “I was going to tell you the story my mom told me about her finding out she was pregnant with me.  But there’s no point.”

“Yes, there is,” Joe squeezed Marie’s hand.  “It’s the story of you, I would love to hear it.”

“I can’t,” Marie said again, this time crying.  “It hurts too much to think about.”

“My mom found out in late November,” Joe smiled.  “She and my dad were super excited when they found out, and as soon as they found out they told everyone they could.  Random people on the street, their parents, their friends, just about anyone that would listen. And then they found out they were having a boy.  My dad was super excited, he started planning my life for me the day he found out. I was going to play for the Chicago Cubs, or at least in his eyes, I was.  But it turned out music was more my thing. Once that became apparent he told me that he actually liked the idea of having an artistic son just a little bit more than having an athletic son.  He said it made me more individualistic than my cousins. My mom, on the other hand, was secretly hoping for a girl, and she said she was in deep denial until I was born and she saw for herself that I was actually a boy.  But she said once she saw me she knew that she’d love me no matter what, even if I went on to become a serial killer. Which is kind of concerning, and I was hoping to know what that felt like, to look at someone and think _even if you become an actual serial killer I’ll love and support you until the very end_ , and I thought I’d have to wait until I had a kid of my own, but then I met you.”  When Joe stopped talking he noticed Marie crying. “The point is, is that even though our plans just changed on us once again, I still love you, and I don’t see that changing, ever.  We’ll get our chance one day, I promise.”

“I’m holding you to that,” Marie hiccuped.  “I love you big time.”

“I love you big time too,” Joe said kissing Marie’s clammy forehead.

Hayley burst through the tent opening, her arms full of all kinds of medical supplies.  She shooed the Niner away that was holding pressure to Marie’s wound. When she noticed that Marie was awake she smiled at her before lifting Joe’s shirt from the wound.

“This is going to sting, but I need the wound clean,” Hayley warned before unscrewing the lid to a bottle of saline.  As she poured the solution on the cut Marie screwed her eyes shut, and sucked in a breath of pain. “I’m sorry,” Hayley said.

“It’s fine,” Marie hissed, she was squeezing Joe’s hand as hard as she could possibly manage, but he didn’t mind; it was proof that she was alive, and that was all that mattered.  

“I’m not sure what’s the best way to go,” Hayley admitted, “but I’m going to stitch you up and then dress the wound.  The bleeding has slowed down, but stitching might help more. I’m sorry I can’t be sure, I’m just not trained well enough.”

“It’s okay,” Marie answered.  “You’re doing great. Thank you so much.”

Hayley began to stitch Marie’s wound.  Her hand was still shaky, but she knew that she had to stitch Marie up to give her a fighting chance.  As the needle pierced the skin, she gently pulled it through to the other side of the wound, the thread following.  She hated giving people sutures, it was disgusting, but she did it anyway because it’s what she had to do. When she finally finished she gently dressed the wound with a piece of gauze and some medical tape.

“You need to stay still,” Hayley said falling back.  “Too much movement will cause the stitches to rip open.”

“Thank you for the help medic,” Michelle said.  “My Niners will escort you and the injured one to the van.”

“Wait, what?” Hayley asked, shaking her head.

“We have a van waiting to take the women back to Dema,” Michelle answered Hayley.  “There you will either be given the honor of breeding maiden or one of Nico’s wives, but _you_ may be asked to learn from the Bishops seeing as you have some medical experience that can be useful to us.”

“The Bishops?” Hayley asked as one of the three male Niners pulled her to her feet by her arm.

“Yes, our Bishops are men of special trade,” Michelle stated, “they’re Nico’s right-hand men.  If you’re lucky you will be allowed to study under one of the medical Bishops and then become his apprentice.  You won’t be a Bishop, but you could be a Bishop’s wife.”

Hayley started to shake her head in protest and watched as two Niner’s held down Joe so a third could pick Marie up.  There was so much she wished she could do, one being going back in time and at least warning Joe and Marie of what would happen tonight.  Her heart was breaking for them, and she wished she could do something, anything for them.

“Leave her alone!” Joe screamed, his body thrashing wildly, trying to escape the tight grips of the Niners.  “Get your filthy fucking hands off of her! I’ll kill you, I’ll kill all of you!”

“I love you,” Marie whimpered to Joe her eyes fluttering.  She was losing consciousness, and Hayley was sure it was because of shock or maybe just an overwhelming amount of pain.

Hayley sucked in a sharp breath and tried to dig her heels into the ground to stop the Niner from pulling her out of the tent.  But he was twice her size and she didn’t have enough energy to try to fight again. Her head was still kind of spinning from the first time around.

“Hayley,” Joe called out to her, and she looked up.  Her eyes locked with his, and she recognized the glisten of tears that pooled in them.  “Keep her safe for me. I’ll find you both, and get us out of this, just keep Marie safe for me.”

“I will,” Hayley said nodding.  Hayley meant it, she just wasn’t sure how’d she go about it exactly, but she would keep Marie safe.  Even though Joe kept fighting, Hayley lifted her feet and let herself be dragged along. She didn’t want any of this, but if she was going to keep Marie safe she would have to conserve energy.  While she was being pulled out of the tent and into the night she kept talking. “Hey Marie, I need you to stay with me. Can you hear me?”

“Where’s Joe?” Marie asked, a sob on the edge of her lips.

“In the tent,” Hayley said.  “Marie, how are you feeling?”

“I want Joe,” Marie murmured, her head lulling to the side.

“He’ll find us,” Hayley said reaching out towards Marie to check her pulse.  It was stronger than before, probably because the bleeding had stopped.

“Right,” Marie said barely above a whisper.  “He found me once, he’ll find me again.” Hayley squeezed Marie’s hand before the Niners pulled them apart.

“I need to stay by her,” Hayley said once they were by the van.  “I have to make sure her vitals are still…”

“Shut up,” the Niner holding on to Hayley interrupted.  “We’re not idiots. Get in.” Hayley rolled her eyes but climbed in the van.  There was already quite a number of women in the van, but none of them looked even remotely ready to try to fight this.  As the Niner holding Marie placed her into the back Hayley noticed Sarah sitting all alone. Her knees pressed tightly into her chest and her face tucked into her knees.

“Sarah,” Hayley whispered, adjusting Marie’s head so it was resting in her lap.  “Hey, Sarah.”

Sarah looked up, and when she saw that it was Hayley she crawled over to her and wrapped her arms around Hayley’s neck in a loose hug.  She was sobbing, and once again Hayley’s heart started to break for someone other than herself.

“Where’s your mom?” Hayley asked surprised to see Sarah alone.

“They killed her,” Sarah sobbed into Hayley’s shoulder.

“Oh Sarah, I’m so sorry,” Hayley said reaching up to hug Sarah back.  She squeezed Sarah tight. Out of all the things that had come out of the zombie apocalypse, this was the worst.  But she was glad that she decided to join the camp despite her initial reluctance. If she hadn’t who knows if Marie would’ve made it this far tonight, or if Sarah would’ve had anybody to attempt to comfort her on the night of her mother’s death.

 

***

 

“So she’s down there?” Josh asked staring at the bilco doors that were shaking.

“Yeah,” Pete said, but his eyes were on Mikey.  He wasn’t going to take his eyes off Mikey every again, he couldn’t risk Mikey slipping away again.  “She came at me saying something about choosing me to be with.” When Mikey looked up at Pete with a look of surprise Pete quickly added: “I didn’t want that, I mean I’m not interested in being with her.  She’s not really me ty-”

“Who cares,” Tyler interrupted.  “Now isn’t really the time to let us know whether or not you want to marry her.”  Pete blushed a little as Mikey shook his head and looked away.

“Do you have a plan?” Josh asked impatiently.

“Not really,” Pete muttered.

“We pick off the people we can,” Mikey piped up.  “I say we go back inside, find Patrick, Andy and Hoppus that way we have more people on our side of this fight.”

“Okay, yeah.” Pete nodded his head.  “Tyler and Josh should stay here though.”

“Right,” Mikey said.  He looked over at Tyler and Josh who looked like they were ready to protest this decision.  “The less people that go in the easier it’ll be. Besides we need to make sure you two keep her loud mouth from attracting too much-wanted attention.  Keep the bat, and if anyone who looks like they’re from Dema comes this way you aim for their head, remember the follow-through is key.”

“What...I can’t,” Tyler said shaking his head trying to hand the bat back to Mikey.

“Look at me,” Mikey said, “you can, and you will if you want to live.  I get it, you don’t want to kill anyone human, because if you do you submit to what this world has come to, and submission is another way of admitting that things really are what they are and you don’t want to do that.  But if it comes down to it, you have to decide whether facing reality or facing death is scarier.”

Mikey didn’t give Tyler a chance to answer, instead, he turned his back on him.  When he noticed that Pete wasn’t following he looked over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows at Pete.  The action seemed to knock Pete out of whatever daydream he was lost in because he jogged to catch up with Mikey.  

“I meant what I said back there,” Pete said.

“That’s good,” Mikey said not really paying attention to Pete.

“Yeah?” Pete asked excitedly.

“Sure,” Mikey shrugged his shoulder.  “Okay, when we get in there we should spli-”

“No, definitely not,” Pete said shaking his head and reaching out to pull Mikey to a stop.  “We are not splitting up. Splitting up is not just a tactic that never ceases to fail in horror movies, it very clearly doesn’t work in real life either.”

“We’d cover more ground,” Mikey argued quietly.  They were getting close to the door, and they’d have to have their plan all set before they could go in.  “I’ll take everything on the left, you take every-”

Pete cut Mikey off by grabbing his upper arm and pulling him to a stop.  “You’re not leaving me alone again. We’re doing this together. It’s safer.”

Mikey’s eyes searched Pete’s face, avoiding his eyes.  But when Pete shook him a little Mikey finally made eye contact.  And just like he knew would, he saw how serious Pete was, and he could see that leaving without saying goodbye had hurt Pete.  Even though he wanted to shake his head no, he felt himself nodding, agreeing to go along with Pete’s plan.

“Good, I’m glad we’re in agreement,” Pete said releasing Mikey from his grip.  “We need to get down low that way we can avoid being seen.”

“Yeah, that’s probably best,” Mikey answered.  In almost perfect unison Mikey and Pete got down on their stomachs and began to army crawl, Pete leading the way.  As they got to the front of the building they started to take in the disaster that was unfolding before them. In the distance, Mikey noticed that there was now a huge gap in the fence almost directly across from them, and pulled right up to it was a van with its back doors wide open.  But the worst part was the scene that was playing out in the van. “Pete is that-”

“Hayley, Marie, and Sarah?” Pete finished for Mikey with an enraged edge to his words.  “Yeah, it is.” The two of them watched as Hayley hugged Sarah back, careful not to disturb Marie whose head was still in Hayley’s lap.  And a moment later it was almost as if Hayley could sense their eyes on her because she looked out into the camp and found their figures in the grass.

Pete quickly lifted a finger to his lips to tell her not to say anything, not even to Sarah and Marie.  Hayley just simply nodded her head and went back to comforting Sarah, and making sure that Marie didn’t die.  Even though it didn’t sit easily in his gut Pete continued to crawl to the door.

“Wait,” Mikey said grabbing Pete’s ankle.  “We should help them. Marie doesn’t…”

“I want to,” Pete said distraught, “but we can’t.  It’s like being on an airplane that’s going down, we have to put our own oxygen masks on before we can help anyone else; Patrick, Andy, and Hoppus are our oxygen masks.”  Pete gently shook his foot out of Mikey’s grip and continued onward. Mikey didn’t argue again, instead, he crawled behind Pete. Just as the two of them got to the door, the sound of an engine roaring to life pulled their attention its way.  

They watched as the van’s back doors were closed by a pair of Niners.  Before either of them could even process what was happening the van was driving away.  

“Shit,” Pete hissed, “I thought we’d have more time.”

“Me too,” Mikey said.   His eyes swept the surroundings cautiously, making sure they hadn’t been caught.  Just when he thought they were clear, a Niner turned their way. Moving as fast as he could Mikey pushed Pete through the door and up against the wall inside.  They were both breathing heavily.

“What just happened?” Pete asked confused, his nose only a breath away from Mikey’s.  For a moment Pete wanted to forget about the all the bullshit that was happening just outside that door and close the distance between his lips and Mikey’s.  But Mikey pushed himself away before Pete could actually act on his selfish thoughts.

“We were almost seen,” Mikey said distancing himself from Pete.  Wordlessly the two started to move down the dark corridor of the eerily empty building.  They swept the first few rooms by the entrance in silence, but there wasn’t a single trace of life.  Pete started to feel more anxious than he was used to. When they finally got to the room Pete had gotten used to thinking of as his bedroom, Pete half-expected himself to wake up in cold sweat, like all of this was just a dream, but that never came.  The darkness and emptiness forged on into the room where his friends should have been sleeping after a long failed scouting mission.

“We should probably grab some stuff from the safe,” Pete whispered pointing to the safe after they had cleared the room.

“That’s a good idea,” Mikey nodded.  “I can keep look out at the door.”

“No, we’re not splitting up.”

“We wouldn’t be splitting up.  Besides having someone on lookout keeps us safer.”

Pete mulled it over for a moment in his mind.  He had to admit that Mikey was right on both accounts, but he didn’t want to put Mikey at risk by making him be lookout.  It didn’t seem fair to let Mikey put himself in immediate danger if someone did come their way. But at the same time, he didn’t want to offend Mikey by thinking he was in constant need of protection.

“Fine, I’ll be quick.”  Pete waited for Mikey to get to the door before he made his way to the safe.  “Fuck sake,” Pete hissed when he noticed that the gun safe was cracked open.

“What,” Mikey asked glancing over his shoulder at Pete.

“They looted the gun safe,” Pete answered slamming the door.  Mikey quickly looked back out the door, in case anyone heard the slam.  The sound of Pete kicking the close gun safe made him jump, but it didn’t the second time.

“Jesus, Pete, stop that.”  Mikey looked back at Pete again.  “Someone might hear us.” But Pete kept kicking the door, the sound echoing throughout the room.  In the short silences between kicks Mikey noticed the sound of footsteps, and when he checked the hallway there was a pair of Niners was heading their way.  Moving as swiftly as possible Mikey rushed to Pete side, pulled open the safe and pushed Pete in, Mikey slipping in beside him making sure to leave the safe cracked ever so slightly.

“Is so-” Mikey covered Pete’s mouth with his hand.  Their bodies were flush against each other, there was hardly any room for them to breath in the gun safe.  Pete had to bend his knees a little because of his height, but Mikey had a whole head on Pete’s height, so his bony knees were bent and pressing into Pete’s leg.

“There’s no one in here,” a voice said just as they step through the door.

“We haven’t even looked around yet,” someone replied.  The sound of their boots on the ground grew as they drew closer.  “You check under the beds, I’ll check the safe.”

Pete could feel Mikey’s palm begin to sweat with it pressed against his face still.  They were cornered like lab rats.

“It’s okay,” Mikey whispered, hardly audible.  “I know you’ll find us.” Before Pete could process what Mikey had just said, Mikey was pushing him out of the safe.

“Well, well, well,” the Niner who was closest to Mikey spoke up.

“Real original,” Mikey responded, “and which Disney villain did you steal that from?”

From inside the safe, Pete’s unease grew when the Niner didn’t respond right away, and when he heard the hard slap he winced.

“Not such a smartass anymore are you?”  Pete could hear the superiority in the Niner’s voice and got angrier.

“You slap like a fucking three-year-old,” Mikey answered, and Pete smirked.  He had to give it to Mikey, even though he was facing down a threat he was still defiant as hell.  There was silence for another second. “And you punch like one too you little bitch.”

The silence in the room was so finite that Pete could hear the sound of one of the Niners clicking off the safety of a gun.

“You sure you want to keep talking?” Mikey rolled his eyes as the Niner who was holding him at gunpoint looked over his shoulder at his companion.  It was a familiar gesture, one that was usually accompanied by a look that showcased accomplishment. Even though Mikey didn’t want to give this guy the satisfaction, he didn’t say anything in fear that the Niner would actually shoot him.  “That’s what I thought, who’s the little bitch now?”

The Niner flicked his gun to the side, a gesture for Mikey to take the lead.  Mikey started walking and felt the gun pressed against the middle of his spine.

“Brother, check the safe for any more lost sheep,” the Niner keeping Mikey at gunpoint.  “While this one may seem like a simple fool, I think he was trying to hide someone else to keep them safe.”

Mikey looked over his shoulder and kept his face completely devoid of emotion.  But he realized that looking back at all was a dead give away, his plan had failed, again.  It was like he couldn’t make any of the right decisions, not without Gerard and Ray by his side which made him sick to his stomach.  Maybe these people were right when they called him “kid,” maybe he was still just a kid despite his age. Kids made stupid, irrational decisions, that wound up with horrible outcomes, and that was all Mikey felt he was doing lately.

He held his breath as the other Niner used the barrel of his gun to open the safe the rest of the way.  Before the Niner could take in the fact that Pete was inside, Pete leaped out at him and hit the gun out of the Niner’s hand.  As the gun clattered to the floor Pete struck out with his right with a palm heel strike to the nose, making the Niner stumble back holding his nose as blood started to flow out of it.  The Niner by Mikey didn’t know what to do, and in his moment of hesitation Mikey spun around completely and in a sweeping motion capturing the arm holding the gun in his left armpit and as quickly as he could he brought his knee into the Niner’s stomach, disarming him.  Pete and Mikey shared a glance as they held their respective Niners at gunpoint.

“It’s still you,” Mikey spit before he jammed the but of the Niner’s gun against the side of the Niner’s head.  He fell to the floor hard, and his head connected with the ground, causing him to pass out instantly. When Mikey looked over at Pete he could see the question in Pete’s eyes as he stared his Niner down, should this guy be left alive?  “Don’t shoot him, just knock him out.”

“He could come back for us,” Pete argued.

“If you kill him, you’re no better than him and his brainwashed friends.”  Mikey moved to the closest bed and pulled the sheets off of it. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a knife that he always kept on him and started to cut the sheet into strands.  “Come on Pete, we don’t have time for this. I have a plan, you just have to trust me.” As the words came out of his mouth Mikey didn’t see any reason for Pete to trust him or any of his plans, because they all ended horribly.  

“I trust you,” Pete said as he knocked his Niner out.  “What do I do?”

“Get their cloaks off of them, and put that corner it can’t be seen from the doorway,” Mikey told Pete pointing with his knife at the corner hidden by the beds in the back of the room.  As Mikey cut the strips Pete did what he was told, and started to pull the Niner’s cloaks off of them. Underneath the cloaks, the Niner’s looked like regular people, and not at all like the monster they acted like.  Their faces were that of two businessmen who probably had kids, and wives, and wanted to make a living to provide for their families. Just like Pete and his friends these Niners weren’t expecting an apocalypse to happen, and now that it had they were just trying to survive, but the only difference was that they chose to do so with chaos and violence.

As Pete pulled the first Niner’s body to the corner he heard the sound of the friction between flesh and linoleum flooring, from where the Niner’s shirt had risen up, and winced.  It sounded horrid and painful. Once he had the first in the corner Mikey gathered his strips of cloth and started to tie some around the Niner’s wrists first, then his ankles, and finally shoved a balled up piece of fabric into the Niner’s mouth and using one more strip to hold it into place as a gag.  He did the same to the other once Pete had him in the corner as well.

“Okay now we put on the cloaks,” Mikey said bending over to pick one up.

“What about your backpack, and our guns?” Pete asked.  “We can’t just leave them, anyone could take them, and we can’t take them with us because they’ll question it.”

“We have to leave them, we can lock them in the safe and come back for them, we can only take what the Niner’s had on them.”  Mikey placed his backpack and gun in the safe and waited for Pete to do the same. Begrudgingly Pete followed Mikey’s lead and locked the safe with the key in his pocket.

“This is insane, you know that right?” Pete asked Mikey as he pocketed the key and adjusted the red cloak so it would hide his face better.

“We’re Niners now,” Mikey said with a shrug.  “Everything we do is insane.”

 


	12. Chapter 12

For a moment things went silent, with the exception of the crackling flames.  Josh knew better than to relax, by letting himself believe that everything was over.  On the other hand, in order to keep a lick of sanity Tyler tried his best to convince himself that maybe, just maybe, the Niners had left and decided to give up.  He sat with his back against the building, eyes closed, trying to pretend he couldn’t smell the metallic scent of blood in the air.

The more he fell into his own trance of disbelief of his reality, he found the scent of blood turning into something familiar.  Something pure. Something almost like home, but he couldn’t quite place. It made him think of life before this zombie apocalypse and playing in the creek by his house with his brother.  Images from when he was younger came flooding back to him causing tears to flow.

“You okay?” Josh asked noticing the hitch in his friend’s breathing, and the sniffle that followed seconds later.

“Just thinking about what life was like before all of this.” Tyler answered, refusing to open his eyes.  He knew if he opened them he wouldn’t see that creek, or the smiles, or his old home again. “Wish we could turn back time, to the good old days.”  He could see the familiar backyard where he and his siblings would play. And there was his and Josh’s favorite place to hang out after school before they walked to their own homes.  Everything looked exactly how it did the last time he saw it, but he never realized how beautiful it all was until it was only memories soaked in nostalgia. 

“Me too,” Josh sighed, placing his hand on Tyler’s shoulder.  Tyler finally opened his eyes when he realized that he had to let it all go because it was never coming back.

“It’s terrifying how quiet it is,” Tyler muttered and wiped his tears.  As the last drop was wiped away the sound of inaudible chanting started to rise.  Unable to hold any of his disgust in anymore, Tyler leaned forward and vomited. “I can’t do this anymore Josh, it’s too much.”  Josh rubbed Tyler’s back as he tried to catch his breath.

“Yes you can, we have each other and that’s all we need to survive,” Josh patted Tyler.  “Don’t forget: Just because we weren’t brothers from the beginning…”

“...doesn’t mean we won’t be brothers beyond the end.” Tyler finished with Josh, finding power in those familiar words.

***

When Brendon came back to consciousness, he thought he saw his father kneeling before him.  It was such a relief to see his father after all this time, even if it meant that Brendon had made his way to Spirit Paradise.

“Why are you here?” He asked his father.  He thought for sure his parents would’ve moved beyond Spirit Paradise, to Heaven.  Unless their judgment had not yet taken place due to the mass casualties of the apocalypse, his father had no reason to be in the same place as Brendon.

“To carry out his wishes.”  His father said in an unfamiliar voice.  Confusion coursed through Brendon’s body, hearing a sort of harshness he had never heard his father use once in his life.  As his eyes started to adjust he realized that the man before him was in a red cloak, and wore an evil smirk. He tried to back away but noticed that his wrists and ankles were bound together.  He shook his head realizing that this wasn’t his father, but a Niner. A cool rush of relief washed over him when he realized he hadn’t died. He could still save Sarah. “Name?” The Niner asked with a gruff voice.

“Sarah?” Brendon asked, using his elbow to sit up, looking for her.

“I doubt that’s your name kid,” the Niner said, “but I can put that down if you want.”

“Fuck you, where’s Sarah?” Brendon asked.  When the Niner refused to answer, Brendon spit in his face, earning himself a smack across the face.  

“If you don’t want to answer, your grave will go unmarked.” The Niner hissed with a smirk when he noticed that his words stole Brendon’s attention.

“What are you talking about?” Brendon asked as his face twisted into confusion.

“It means that you do not meet Nico’s standards, and for that, you are condemned to cleansing by flame.”

***

Marie moaned out in pain with each large bump the van hit, and Sarah wouldn’t stop clinging to Hayley.  The women in the van stayed silent for the most part, but some were trying to ban together to fight back against the Niner’s once they got to camp Dema.

Hayley listened to the chatter from those who were trying to find a way to fight for their freedom, and none of them were thinking far enough ahead to come up with a proper solution.  Arguments between these women would spark, but wouldn’t catch because they knew that if they were too busy fighting each other, they would lose the time they had to plan for the fight against the Niners.  

In one of their lulls of silence, Hayley heard Sarah mumble something under her breath.

“What was that?” Hayley asked gently looking down at Sarah, who was resting her head against Hayley’s shoulder, her arms wrapped around Hayley’s left arm.

“I said that their plan is useless,” Sarah spoke louder this time, loud enough for the women to hear her.

“And how would you know, you little bitch?” one of the women snarled.

“Hey!” Hayley shot back.  “Don’t call her a bitch, she’s just a young girl who just watched her mom get killed.”

“Oh fuck off,” another woman responded, “she’s not special, we all have tragedies we could use to try to gain sympathy.”

“Yeah, I saw my husband tear apart our three-year-old daughter the night of the breakout,” another woman spoke up.

“I’m sorry,” Hayley said, “but that doesn’t make it right to yell at her.”

“Oh get off your high horse Nurse Jackie,” the first woman spoke up again.  “You’re not as perfect as you act, I’m good friends with Commander Hoppus, so I know how he found you.”

The entire van fell into a curious silence, wondering what this woman was talking about, but nobody asked, knowing that everyone’s past was off limits unless they offered it up without complaint.  

“Oh, what?” The first woman tried to egg Hayley on.  “Now you have nothing to say?”

“Leave her alone Amy,” someone else said.  When Hayley looked to see who it was that was talking this time she was surprised to see Skye, Commander Hoppus’s wife.  “And the young girl is right, none of your plans will work.”

“Oh, and what gives you the authority to say so?” The first woman, Amy, questioned.

“Nothing really,” Skye answered, “but my common sense tells me that we’ll be outnumbered once those van doors open, even with the training my husband, the Commander, has given me, it would be useless.”

The van fell back into silence all over again, this time the only true exception was the moans of pain Marie let out when the van shook too much.

***

A few times as they were walking down the empty, dim hallway, Pete found himself wanting to reach out for Mikey’s hand.  Even though they were walking side by side, the eeriness of the corridor made the both feel chillingly alone. The silence was driving Mikey insane, but he bit his lip to keep from talking, in fear that his voice would give them away.  

Every step they took actually made the hallway feel as though it were stretching out, elongating itself, trying to ward them off their death wish of a plan.  But instead of heeding its warning, the two forged on, finding solace in each other’s company. 

“Do you smell that?” Pete asked as the scent of burning wood tickled his nose.

“Yeah, we must be close,” Mikey whispered, his steps faltering.  Pete immediately took notice of Mikey’s stumble and paused his own steps.  In the dark he reached across the void, disregarding his instinct to ignore his desire to hold onto Mikey’s hand, if only for a second.  At first, his fingers just barely brushed the edge of Mikey’s sleeve, but it was enough to send a surge of confidence through Mikey’s veins.

Pete pulled back his hand in embarrassment, thinking that it was a sign that he shouldn’t hold Mikey’s hand at all, considering the fact that he had missed it.  But Mikey quickly grabbed Pete’s hand before it could be retracted completely. It wasn’t a completely familiar feeling, but he remembered it quite well from when they ran from the Commander’s office.  That felt like forever ago but in reality, hardly any time had passed. As they held onto each other, they took in deep breaths, letting everything that was racing, calm to a steady pace: their breathing, their hearts, their thoughts.  It took a moment, but once they were both ready, they let go and started onward again.

“Where could he have gone?” A deep voice asked harshly, the sound echoing off the walls.  “Answer me, or I carve another mark in your leader's chest.”

“Don’t answer him,” Commander Hoppus hissed out in between breaths.

“Fine, if your leader’s well being is not motivating enough, how about we bring a civilian into this?”  The Niner growled, “Bring out the girl.”

Mikey and Pete shared a look in the dark, the doorway was in sight, the scent of burning wood more potent.

“Here you are sir,” another Niner said.  The sound of someone tripping over themselves followed closely behind, along with a whimper.

“To me this young girl’s life is disposable,” the Niner in charge said unfazed.  “At the moment she is too young for Nico, and these scars make her imperfect and unworthy of him when she grows.  If you tell me where your friend could have gone, I’ll spare her life from the fire of Nico’s will.”

“I don’t know where Pete went,” Patrick's voice carried through the doorway.  “He probably ran off looking for his most recent pet project.”

Taking one final deep breath Pete ducked his head and slipped through the doorway, Mikey doing the same as quickly as possible.  The couldn’t see much with their hoods in the way and their heads facing downwards, but they saw enough to see the Commander, Patrick, Andy, the members of the third squad, and a rather hefty number of Niners.

“Brothers you have returned to us,” the head Niner praised, forgetting himself for a moment.  “Did you find out what was making that noise?”

Mikey shook his head hoping to avoid speaking as long as possible, but the head Niner wasn’t having any of that.

“I’m the sorry brother, but did you forget how to speak?” The head Niner asked in an annoyed tone.

“No,” Pete intervened.  “We’re just ashamed that we have failed our brothers and our great leader.”  From under the hood, Pete noticed Patrick’s foot twitch ever so slightly. At first, he figured it was just a reflex, but then it happened again, and one more time.  It seemed too frequent to be a coincidence. 

“Worry not,” the Niner cheered.  “For our glorious leader, Nico will forgive all of us for our sins tonight, for we are victorious.”

Anger bubbled up in Pete’s chest when he heard these words.  This wasn’t a game to win, and sure, there was a war going on, but it wasn’t between the humans that still walked the Earth, alive and well.  This war was between the living and the undead, but if Nico and the Niners wanted to make it living versus living, there was no way Pete was going to let them win.

“Brother, may I ask you a question?” Mikey asked just as Pete was about to pull back his hood to reveal himself as the one these Niners were looking for.

“Of course brother,” the head Niner answered.  “What is your question?

“My question is,” Mikey straightened up and pulled down his hood, “what makes you so sure you’ll be the victors of tonight’s battle?”  Before any of the Niners could answer Mikey sprung into action. Pete lagged behind for a second, surprised that Mikey was the one to break first.  They were greatly outnumbered, but far more motivated.

Mikey took care of the head Niner first, hoping he would release the girl.  Mikey did a sweeping kick at the head Niner’s legs knocking them together, and as the Niner stumbled from this he released the girl just as Mikey had hoped.

“Run, but don’t go outside,” Mikey commanded.  Rather than listen, though, the girl tried her best to tackle the Niner who held her captive, but her weak frame did nothing, but get pushed aside.

Making sure the girl didn’t get the brunt of the anger from the Niner, Mikey charged at him.  Using his shoulder and the momentum he gained from charging, Mikey knocked the Niner down. His head smacked against the linoleum floor, but that didn’t stop him.  He staggered to his feet, swaying a little.

“You brat, you and your friend were being offered the highest of honors in Dema and this is how you repay Nico’s generosity?” the head Niner spit at Mikey’s boots and swung at him with a blade he produced from the inside of his cloak.  Mikey jumped back, the blade just barely missing his stomach. “Go, take the prisoners and go,” the head Niner yelled at the others. But before any of them could act on their leaders commands Pete blocked the doorway pointing his gun at one of the Niner’s chests.

“You wouldn’t dare,” the Niner being used at Pete’s target hissed at him.  Instead of responding with words, Pete turned off the safety and cocked the gun.  “Would you really risk becoming a zombie just to keep us from fulfilling the orders of our generous leader?”

“I would rather spend the rest of my days like the monsters outside that fence than let the ones in this room take me and my friends,”  Pete answered squaring his shoulders. 

Mikey paused his fight, the Niner he was up against pausing too, blinky rapidly trying to fight the dizziness he was feeling.  They both watched Pete, trying to determine what move he would actually make.

“What do you want?” The head Niner asked.

“What do you think I want, you asshole?” Pete retorted his finger moving towards the trigger.  “Mikey start untying them, if any of you move the slightest inch I’ll shoot.” 

Mikey took a cautious step towards Patrick, testing the tension in the room.  When nobody else moved he quickly started to untie Patrick. Without even being asked to, the young girl started to untie people too.  Just as Mikey was about to finishing untying Patrick’s wrists a Niner was behind him pulling him to his feet, a knife pressed against his neck.

“How about this,” the head Niner said.  “We take this one, and you can have the rest.”

“No,” Pete said shaking his head.  “Either all of them come with me or we all become zombies.”

“Well go ahead then,” the head Niner said.  “We’ll sacrifice ourselves in Nico’s honor. But are you really willing to turn your friends and yourself into the creatures that are worse than dead?”

The young girl paused her work on trying to untie Andy’s wrists.  Her shaky hands rested on Andy’s as she tried to keep herself from running away in horror.  She watched the standoff that was happening right before her, waiting to see what would happen.

“You should slip away while you can,” Andy whispered to the girl.  “Your life doesn’t have to end this way.”

“I have nowhere to go,” the girl answered, her voice just as shaky as her hands.  “Besides only cowards run. And I’m not a coward.” The girl began working on Andy’s wrists again, doing her best to be quick.

“Pete don't be stupid,” Mikey spoke up.  “If I go with you, you promise to let all of them be.”

“I swear it on Nico’s honor,” the head Niner answered.  Mikey wasn’t so sure he could trust the Niner, but if it gave Pete and the rest a head start, that’s all that mattered.

“De-” Mikey started to say, but Pete cut him off.

“Amanda,” Pete stated desperately.

“What of her,” the head Niner asked, swallowing and blinking hard still fighting off the dizziness.  Mikey was shaking his head, pleading that Pete would understand that the leverage they had with Amanda was worth more than Mikey’s life.  Pete closed his eyes and sighed.

“Nothing, just, nothing,” Pete said stepping aside, but he kept his gun trained on the Niner’s chest.  One by one the Niners leaked out of the room, the one keeping Mikey at bay trailing them all to make sure they were all reminded of the deal.  As the last of them slipped out Pete kicked the door shut, before turning back towards his friends. “I’m going to follow them, you should take the secret exit to the basement, wait as long as you feel is necessary and if we don’t come for you then go.  In the basement is Amanda, she’s Nico’s oldest daughter, she’s your leverage.”

“They expect you to follow them,” to Pete’s surprise it wasn’t Patrick, or Andy, or even Commander Hoppus that spoke up, it was the young girl.  “Are you really going to be that stupid?”

“I’m not stupid,” Pete defended himself.  “I can’t let him be abandoned again.”

“I think he’d rather be let go then to have his sacrifice wasted,” Patrick nodded along with the girl as her nimble finger undid his bindings.  She got Patrick’s wrists free faster than she did Andy’s. She was a quick learner, always had been, and she was figuring out how to undo the knots as quickly as she picked up ballet.  As Andy and Patrick worked on untying their ankles, she moved on to untying the Commander's wrists.

“You don’t know him,” Pete retorted.

“Oh, and you do?” Andy asked, finally freeing his ankles and starting to help the girl by untying the wrists of the leader of the third squad, Josh.  He and his squad members silently watched. They were always silent, they hardly ever spoke to anyone outside of their group besides the Commander. Some people in the camp thought they were a myth the Commander made up to make the camp feel safer.  Little did they know, the third squad, the elusive one, was the one that did most of the heavy lifting. They somehow always came back with the most successful scouting missions. Pete had a theory it was because out of everyone in the camp, they were the angriest.  They were originally from Canada and were on a trip together, they were supposed to go back home the day after the breakout. Pete had to admit, he’d be pissed too.

“Better than anyone here,” Pete answered.  

“Then think,” the girl spoke up pulling Hoppus wrists free.  “How would he react if you walked right into their trap after he tried to save you?”  She scurried over to the second in command, Matt’s, aid. Before Pete could even think of a response she was done untying Matt’s wrists and was halfway through Ian’s.

“The girl has a point,” Patrick spoke up.  He was struggling with getting, his ankles untied.  Glancing between the door and Patrick one last time, Pete kneeled down in front of Patrick and smoothly untied Patrick’s ankles.  Patrick looked to the girl and said, “Thank you…”

“Helena,” the girl answered just as she released Mike’s wrists.  She sat back, the scars decorating her face danced as it rippled into a smile that she flashed at the guys before her.

***

“What are you doing?” Mikey asked as he was yanked against the hallway wall not too far away from the room they had just left.  He could make out the voices behind the door Pete kicked closed, but he couldn’t decode what those voices were actually saying.

“Waiting to see if he’s stupid enough to follow,” the head Niner answered leaning on one of the other Niners.  Mikey was going to tell him that Pete wasn’t going to follow them, that he was smarter than he seemed, but he bit his tongue before he could get the words out.  He was already captured, he didn’t want to be wrong too. Instead, he leaned back against the wall, waiting for Pete to slip up and follow just like the Niners suspected of him.

Mikey grew up believing in God.  He stopped believing in any kind of higher power once he saw his brother kill their parents who had turned earlier on, or so he thought.  But in reality, he wasn’t sure he ever believed in any kind of higher power because in his eyes the highest power of all was always Gerard.  Gerard was always there to listen to him. Gerard was always there to fix whatever Mikey had broken. Gerard was always answering Mikey’s wishes and prayers the best he could.  Gerard was always making things better for Mikey, always watching out for Mikey, and always making sure that Mikey was safe even at the risk of his own safety. If that wasn’t a higher power, then Mikey really wasn’t sure what was.  So as he leaned against that wall, holding his breath, hoping that Pete wouldn’t be stupid, he thought of Gerard’s miracles and begged that he could make another one happen, wherever he was. 

And wherever Gerard was it seemed like he made just one more miracle happen, just as Mikey hoped.  But just like usual, his miracles weren’t perfect, because even though most of the Niners went with him, two stayed behind to wait it out just in case.

As they all walked down the hallway Mikey felt the phantom touch of Pete’s hand in his.  Before the hallway felt lonely, even with Pete by his side, but now, even with over twice as many people as before, Mikey felt suffocatingly isolated.  

***

Tyler was shaking his leg, he couldn’t stop shaking his leg.  All the nerves in his body were bouncing around, up his leg to his stomach, and then back down to his toes.  He couldn’t take it anymore, it was all just too much and he couldn’t sit still. Jumping up to his feet, he could feel himself start to sweat, and he took a few practice swings.

“It’ll be okay,” Josh promised.  It was an empty promise, that tasted sour on his tongue.  When Tyler finally looked over at Josh, it was clear that he knew that Josh’s promise was nothing more than a wish, one that wasn’t at all likely to come true, but he smiled nonetheless.  He knew Josh was just trying to keep him safe because since the day they met Josh was always there to protect Tyler. From bullies, from whatever was lurking in the dark, from the dark days themselves.  But Tyler always felt it was an unbalanced friendship like he brought nothing to the table. He never told Josh that though, he was too afraid that if Josh heard him say those words, he would smarten up and find better friends, cooler friends.  

Instead of answering Josh at all, Tyler gave a tight, curt nod.  The sound of the front door of the building slamming shut made Tyler and Josh snap to attention.  Standing with their backs pressed against to the wall they waited to see who would come around the corner.

“I don’t know,” Mikey’s voice drifted their way.  He sounded calm, slightly irritated, but calm mostly.  Before Josh could stop Tyler, Tyler was moving from his hiding spot and into the open.  “Go! Get out of here!” Josh heard Mikey call out to Tyler.

Tyler stood there, unable to move, feeling as though he was cemented to the ground.  Even though Mikey was telling him to leave, he couldn’t just abandon the person who had helped him and his best friend when they needed help the most.  Especially not after the hell they had caused. Tyler looked over his shoulder, but he couldn’t find Josh, and as he took a deep breath he knew it was for the best.  This time Josh wasn’t in charge of saving him. This time Tyler wasn’t going to give up until Josh was safe and sound. 

“What are you doing, fucking run!” Mikey screamed at Tyler, doing all that he could with his arms behind his back to keep the Niners at bay.  His body was taught as he dug his heels into the ground and kept twisting trying to use his shoulders as his last resort. “Run!” And this time Tyler did.  He poised the bat, ready to swing, and charged at the group of Niners who looked smug. 

Before Tyler could cover any ground someone tackled him from behind.  Tyler knew exactly who it was because there was only one person who always had his back.  

“Let them go,” Mikey hissed as he yanked his arms free.  Before any of the Niners could react, Josh was back on his feet and taking aim.  He shot off a warning that would have grazed Mikey’s left shoulder if he didn’t dive out of the way.  As he hit the ground, he heard a moan of pain from one of the Niners and looked up to see a scrawny Niner who couldn’t have been older than seventeen, clutching his throat.  Blood was sweeping through the kid's fingers as he collapsed backward. As soon as he hit the ground it was like a bomb went off, in slow motion. The other Niners darted off in different directions, one making sure to reach out for Mikey and try to pull him along.  Mikey put up a fight, slamming the heel of his palm up into the Niner’s nose. Blood exploded from his nose, as a scream arose from somewhere in the distance and with it the scent of burning and flesh and hair filled the air. Josh was shaking, this was his mistake, he really didn’t mean to shoot anyone, it was just supposed to be a warning, but his nerves made him shake, and he wasn’t prepared for the kick that came with the shot.  

“Come on Josh,” Tyler was trying to lift Josh to his feet.  “He’s going to turn, we’ve got to move.” Josh still couldn’t think straight, so Tyler did the best he could, dragging his friend as far as he could.  Another scream roared by the fire pit, as the Niner rose to his feet. His skin was already discolored, a greenish-blue tint rising to the surface. There was a hole in the center of his throat where the bullet had torn its way through, the blood wasn’t flowing anymore, but instead, it crusted over black.  The smell of the dead brought back to life was rancid, the only thing worse was the ever-growing smell of burning flesh and hair from the fire.

Mikey watched as the fresh zombie snapped his teeth before sinking them into the flesh of the Niner who was too busy trying to keep his bloody nose under control.  As it pulled back, a large chunk of flesh stuck between its teeth, the Niner yelped in pain. Mikey scrambled backward as fast as he could. It didn’t take long for the Zombie to lose interest in the Niner, once he was dead, the zombie didn’t care at all, because it only craved the flesh and blood of someone who was still breathing, and Mikey was the closest someone.  Before Mikey could get back on his feet, the zombie wrapped it’s cold, disgusting fingers around Mikey’s ankle and opened its mouth wide. He tried backing away, but the zombie Niner only tightened his grip, the sharp pain of its nails digging into Mikey’s skin was like a shot of desperation that made its way through Mikey’s bloodstream in a rapid manner.

Mikey kicked with his free leg, the zombie’s neck bent with the force of the blow, and stayed at its unnatural, almost 90-degree angle, but its grip didn’t loosen.  Mikey kicked again and again and again until the zombie's head snapped off completely. The hand on Mikey’s ankle loosened its grip, but he had to pry the stiff fingers, that latched on by the fingernails, off the rest of the way.  

He smelt the cold, rancid stench of undead to his side just in time to dodge the teeth that were only a breath away from biting into his neck.  As he rolled to the side, the detached head snipped as his arm. First step, Mikey thought to himself, was to get this stupid Niner zombie off his tail, and the second step was to take care of the rabid head just sitting on the ground waiting for someone to sink its teeth into.  The zombie, with its head, still attached leaped at Mikey again, this time Mikey waited as long as he could before he acted. He kicked out, knocking the zombie off its feet. As it collapsed Mikey got up on to his feet and stomped down on the zombies head until it was nothing but mush.  Anger coursed through Mikey’s veins as he picked up the other zombie’s head, slipping from the brain mush on the bottom of his and the black sludge that used to be blood. When he reached the wall of the building Mikey slammed the zombie’s head against the wall, black sludge splattering all over him from the neck down.  It took a few hard slams to end the miserable existence. By the time the execution was finished Mikey was covered in zombie sludge and brains.

He turned back around to where the Niners once stood, but they were scattered.

“Cowards,” Mikey muttered dropping the smashed head to the ground.  A sting pain in his palm suddenly broke through the thin wall of adrenaline he had built up.  He looked down at it to find a piece of bone from the zombie skulled lodged in the center of his palm.  Biting down on his tongue to hold back a pained wail he pulled the fragment out, leaving behind a fresh new wound.  It bled more than he thought it would, but he just smeared his blood on his jeans and searched for Tyler and Josh.

He found both sets of eyes watching him in what looked like awe.  Instead of using any words Mikey jerked his head towards the door, and the two followed him.  The three walked silence, Mikey taking back the gun he had given to Josh. As they got closer to the room where Pete and the others were, Mikey motioned for Tyler and Josh to flatten themselves against the wall and stay put.  Mikey inched forward, the Niners who had stayed behind looked bored as they waited. 

Mikey stepped out into the open, lifting his gun.  The Niners didn’t notice him at first, they were too focused on watching the door.  Mikey used this to his advantage and moved close enough that he could use the butt of the gun to knock one down to his knees.

“Move an inch and you’re dead,” Mikey’s voice was flat as he spoke.  The Niners shared a quick look, but they listened to Mikey. “Place whatever weapons you have, on the floor and kick them to me.”  The Niner who was still on his feet did as Mikey said, moving slowly, in hopes of not provoking Mikey any further. When the one on his knees didn’t listen, Mikey pulled his gun back again and rammed it into the Niners head, knocking him out cold this time.

“That wasn’t necessary,” the standing Niner muttered.

“Don’t talk to me about necessity,” Mikey spat.  “It wasn’t necessary for you, and you're idiotic, brainwashed friends to come here and mess up the community that these people in this camp created.”

“It was,” the Niner argued, pushing back his hood.  His eyes had this glazed over look like he was under some kind of spell.  “Nico is the savior we all need. We were only trying to save this camp before it was too late.”

Mikey’s face twitched in anger, and before he could stop himself he pulled his arm back and was letting his fist fly right into the Niner’s nose.  He stumbled backward and clutched his nose, while the Niner was still in shock Mikey tackled him to the ground. Straddling the Niner, and pinning his arms above his head to keep him in place, Mikey leaned in close.

“I should kill you, let you turn into one of those monsters,” Mikey hissed.  “And I could, I could let a bullet pierce your heart and bring it to a stop, and before you could even comprehend what happened you’d be a zombie, all alone, even Nico wouldn’t try to help you.  I wouldn’t put you out of your misery either, I’d let you roam around craving what you once had: life. But I won’t because, unlike you, I have respect for human life, even now, even yours. But when you wake up, and you find Nico you let him know that  _ I _ saved your life today, not him.”  Mikey lifted his gun and pistol wiped the Niner until his head lulled to side.  Ever so slightly his body relaxed.

***

Pete heard the voices in the hallway first.  He turned towards the others and shushed them by pressing his pointer finger of his mouth.  Everyone in the room went still and silent, Patrick grabbed Helena and pulled her by his side to make sure she was out of the way in case anything happened.  Pete slowly moved closer to the door, making sure not to make any noise as he put his ear against the solid wood.

“...camp created,” Pete didn’t hear the whole sentence but could tell by just those two words that Mikey was talking.  Pete hesitated a moment, before looking back at Patrick. The two shared a look. Pete silently mouthed “Mikey” and Patrick nodded, this time pushing Helena behind him entirely.  

Carefully Pete opened the door ever so slightly.  When he saw Mikey on top of one of the Niners, he threw the door open the rest of the way just as Mikey seemed to begin to relax.  Pete cleared his throat, making Mikey jerk his head up.

“I have to admit, I’m a little jealous,” Pete half-joked.

“They were easy to take on,” Mikey answered, the comment going over his head.

“I meant I’m jealous of the Niner,” Pete clarified.  He never thought he would have to clarify that he was flirting with someone, but then again, he never thought he’d be in the middle of the zombie apocalypse either.  Even with Pete’s clarification, though, Mikey tilted his head. This time Pete’s face went red. “Jesus fucking Christ dude, I’m saying I would love to have you straddling me like that.  I was flirting because you’re hot…”

“Pete, we have bigger problems,” Andy called out from inside the room.  Mikey just stared up at Pete, his face feeling hotter than an oven on it’s highest setting, his eyes wider than any fan service female anime character’s.   

“Yeah, flirt later weirdo,” Helena chimed in.  Tyler and Josh came out of their hiding spots snickering like little children.  The sound of their delight only sent Mikey further into his spiral of shock. Pete offered Mikey his hand to pull him to his feet, and even though Mikey was sure that anything he touched would burst into flames of embarrassment he took Pete’s hand.  He felt himself being helped back onto his feet, and he knew that his palm was obnoxious sweaty while it was against Pete’s. He didn’t think he could be more embarrassed, until his foot caught on the Niner’s robe, and tripped his way into Pete’s arms.

“Falling for me already?” Pete asked, a smug smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Pete, dude, now  _ really _ isn’t the time,” Patrick muttered.  Although Pete really didn’t want to, he righted Mikey, even going as far as straightening out his shirt and fixing his tousled hair, and backed away.  Mikey’s heart was pounding in his chest, but to hide it he reached up and messed his hair back up, just to seem like his spiteful self. It only made Pete smile even more.  

“Now what?” Helena asked.

“Now,” Commander Hoppus stepped forward with a new limp, “we take back our camp.”

 


End file.
